I like Billy Beane. I don’t just like him because of his star turn in Moneyball or because I think he’s pretty smart or because he’s a quotable guy, and there can never be enough quotable guys in my world. I like Billy Beane for the very reason that many people in baseball have a problem with him. I like Billy Beane because he’s a star.
There are many unwritten rules in baseball, of course, and one of those is that the people behind the game are supposed to stay more or less anonymous. Scouts are not supposed to brag about the players they signed, minor league directors are not supposed to have egos even if they’re generating prospects like popcorn, and general managers are not supposed to crow about bilking some other GM in a trade or stick people’s nose in the mud when they outsmarted everybody. I respect these traditions; I have little facility to say good things about myself. Heck, when I’m in a restaurant and they call my receipt number, I barely have the strength to say, “Yeah, I have that number.”
The problem is this: In America, quiet humility is not necessarily appreciated. And it’s rarely celebrated. Yes, in the mythology of our country we’re all supposed to like the quiet, humble, self-effacing achiever — but the older I get the more I realize those people don’t often get the job.
I once had a friend tell me — I think he came up with this quote himself, but maybe it’s famous — that “the way to become a star in America is to tell people you are one.” I think there’s a lot of truth to this. I have a friend who I think is a wonderfully talented singer and musician and she’s beautiful and she’s in LA and she’s touring, and yet how does someone like her break through? What is it that separates someone like Julia from the megastars (here in Las Vegas, my room faces the Flamingo which means through my window I have an enormous Toni Braxton billboard staring at me. I have exactly 0.0 complaints about this — how can you not love Toni Braxton? — but how did she get so big that she has giant Diet Pepsi billboards and just the word “Toni” on them?).
More and more I think the difference is that hunger to be a star. Bob Feller says it all the time — “If you don’t promote yourself, who will?” So I like Billy Beane because he’s not averse to promotion, he’s willing to charge $50,000 for a speaking engagement, he runs the A’s boldly, and he doesn’t back off the idea that he’s pretty damned good at what he does.
I bring this up because in the last couple of days I was doing a little research, and I came across a couple of pretty amazing little facts. I was looking at the career of the Bob Howsam, who died last week. You know, Howsam was the guy who mostly built the Big Red Machine. He had a few nice pieces in place when he arrived — Rose was there, Bench, Perez — but he was the who hired Sparky Anderson, who traded for Joe Morgan, George Foster, Cesar Gernonimo, Jack Billingham, etc. He’s the guy who drafted Don Gullett, Ken Griffey, Rawly Eastwick, who signed Dave Concepcion, etc.
He’s not in the Hall of Fame, though. In fact, the only GMs in the Hall of Fame for BEING GMs, best I can tell are:
– Branch Rickey, who invented the farm system and signed Jackie Robinson.
– George Weiss, who was GM of the Yankees during their glory 1950s.
– Lee MacPhail, who was Director of Player Personnel for the Yankees during the 1950s and GM for the Orioles in the 1960s (though he left before the Orioles started winning pennants).
– Larry MacPhail, who was GM for the Reds and set up the first night game. He also is credit for being a pioneer for plane travel*.
(Add note: Rob Neyer emails in to point out that I missed Ed Barrow. He did a lot of stuff, but I would agree … he claim to the Hall is as a GM of those early great Yankees teams. But I still say it’s four because Lee MacPhail’s claim to the Hall is NOT as a GM, best I can tell).
*This seems pretty silly to me … I mean that had to be SOMEBODY who said, “Hey, why don’t we fly to games?” Do we really think that teams would be traveling by train now had it not been for the innovation of Larry MacPhail?
I think that’s it. Four guys. To give you an idea, there are twice as many UMPIRES in the Hall. True, there are other former GMs in the Hall, but it seems to me they really got in for something else — for being a league president or an owner or whatever. GMs talk all the time about going unnoticed. Well, largely, they DO go unnoticed so they’re doing a nice job. Bob Howsam, more than anyone, is responsible for putting together the Big Red Machine, perhaps the best team ever put together (at least that what I’m going to say in the book — it’s a law when you write a book to say stuff like that) and that wasn’t good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame*.
*Just as Cedric Tallis, to me, is more responsible than anyone for the Royals success from 1975-1985 and he isn’t even in the ROYALS Hall of Fame. I cannot even believe that the guy who traded for Amos Otis, John Mayberry, Hal McRae, Fred Patek, signed Frank White and drafted George Brett is not in the Royals Hall of Fame. That burns me, I have to say.
But, I’m getting away from the point here. My point is not that Bob Howsam deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, though I think he does. My point is that general managers, until very recently, have done a poor job of getting appreciated. I was talking to a friend of mine about Howsam — my friend’s a huge Cardinals fan, one of those people who to me does a good job representing how people in St. Louis feel about stuff — and he started grumbling, “Oh, I hate Bob Howsam.” I thought that was very odd — I knew Howsam had really put together the pieces for the 1967 Cardinals World Championship. I said, “How could you hate Bob Howsam?” He said, “He traded Ken Boyer. You don’t trade Ken Boyer.”
OK, so I went back to look. Of course, it is true — right at the end of the 1965 season, Howsam traded Cardinals favorite Ken Boyer to the Mets for Al Jackson and Charley Smith. It’s also true that my friends complaints were pure nostalgia — Boyer was more or less done when the Cardinals traded him, and Howsam had learned the hard lesson from Rickey that it’s better to trade a player sooner rather than later. It seems, in retrospect, that he traded Boyer at precisely the right time — Boyer was pretty much a part-time player for the rest of his career — and Al Jackson was helpful the next couple of years. Charley Smith would bring a different kind of help.
That’s when I started looking at Howsam’s record in St. Louis. On the one hand, I can see why longtime Cardinals fans might hold things against him — it wasn’t just Boyer. He also traded Cardinals favorites Bill White and Dick Groat — Howsam was not an especially sentimental man, certainly not when running his team. On the other hand, only White had anything left — he had one good year in Philadelphia and a couple of pretty good part-time years.
None of it matters in the long run, though. What does matter is that in 1966, Howsam made one of the best trades in baseball history — he traded Ray Sadecki to San Francisco for Orlando Cepeda. Sadecki was, at the time, one of the prize possessions in baseball, a young, fireballing left-handed pitcher. And Cepeda had missed almost the entire 1965 season. It was bold and gutsy. It worked. Cepeda won the MVP in 1967 and led the Cardinals to a World Championship.
Then, later that year, Howsam traded the aforementioned Charley Smith to the Yankees for the aging Roger Maris. And Maris had a couple more seasons in the sun as a very good part time player on the Cardinals World Series teams in ‘67 and ‘68.
Howsam did not enjoy any of that. He was shoved out the door before the 1967 season — the GM of that ‘67 team was Stan Musial who has happily admitted in the past that he didn’t really do anything except watch his team win. Musial did make one trade in ‘67, that scrappy player to be named for the oft-traded Jack Lamabe (Lamabe was traded seven times in a seven-year career, which ain’t bad). It seems that in the 1960s, you couldn’t get full GM privileges unless you made a trade that involved Jack Lamabe.
So I started thinking that Bob Howsam really has been screwed by history. Cardinals fans — at least one — hates him though he helped built the World Champ Cardinals. The Reds didn’t put him in their Hall of Fame until 2004*, though he’s probably the pivotal executive in their history (it is true that he didn’t come up with the “Let’s fly our players in planes” innovation). The Baseball Hall of Fame has ignored Howsam (as has the football Hall though he created the Denver Broncos and built Mile High Stadium). And he did not even get a World Series ring from the 1967 Cardinals team he helped build.
*As a brilliant commenter notes, this was not in any way a snub of Howsam, but more of a factor of timing — the Reds did not put anyone in their Hall for about a 10 year period there when Marge Schott was ruling the roost. I just make this point to suggest, again, the overall point which is that GMs tend to be overlooked.
But THEN I realized that another GM in St. Louis got screwed even worse. You already know this … in 1964, Bing Devine made what many people would consider the single greatest trade in baseball history. He traded Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock. it’s the quintessential great trade, the trade that many people believe sent the Chicago Cubs into a cursed 40 year Bartman trip, and sent the Cardinals to four World Series titles and four more National League pennants.
What you may not know (depending on if you read David Halberstam’s “Summer of ‘64) is that two months after making that trade, Devine got fired. I guess he officially “resigned” but he got fired — August 17, 1964. At the time, the Cardinals were nine games back in the National League, and I guess owner Gussie Busch had enough. The Cardinals — under the watchful eye of new GM Bob Howsam (who did nothing except get a World Series ring) — the Cardinals won 30 of their last 44, caught the dying Phillies, and won the World Series.
So how about that? Bing Devine made the greatest trade, the one GMs dream about, his team made one of the most dramatic comebacks in baseball history* and he did not even make it to the finish line. See, this is what I’m saying? GMs need to be a part of best-selling books. They should brag about their trades. . Billy Beane’s latest rebuilding strategy might flop, but he’ll be OK. Even if they fire him eventually, he can always make good money speaking at awards banquets.
*We were arguing the other day about which collapse was worse — the 1964 Phillies collapse or the 2007 Mets collapse. Numerically, it’s tough to argue against the Phillies who were up 6 1/2 games with 12 left. The Mets were up seven games with 17 left, which is only marginally better, but it is marginally better. The Phillies rather famously lost 10 games in a row there which seems like the very essence of collapse — that’s Greg Norman on Sunday at Augusta. The Mets at least spread out their losses a little better — their longest losing streak down the stretch was five.
In the end, though, I think we decided that the Mets collapse was worse for the simple reason that the Mets were really the best team while the Phillies were doing it with smoke, mirrors and a little Gene Mauch tinkering. Those Phillies had one legitimately great pitcher (Jim Bunning) and one legitimately great hitter (Dick Allen). They also had one emerging young offensive star (Johnny Callison) and one emerging young pitching star (Chris Short — who was not short at all, he was 6-foot-4 and threw serious gas). They played above themselves for quite some time.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, had three really good starting pitchers (Gibson, of course, the veteran Curt Simmons and the young fireballing Ray Sadecki) and a a lineup that now had Lou Brock (who hit .348 after being freed from Chicago), along with numerous All-Star type players including Tim McCarver, Bill White, Julian Javier, Ken Boyer, Dick Groat, Curt Flood and so on. Match those two teams up in Strat-O, the Cardinals win nine out of 10 times. Maybe 10 out of 10. It was, as a friend who died with those Phillies likes to say, just a matter of time before the Phillies faded — the only hope was the end of the season came first.
The Mets, it seems to me, had more talent than the Phillies even as their starting pitching unraveled. That lineup is loaded, they spent enough money on pitching, that team was not overachieving for five and a half months like the Phillies. Their collapse seems more pure to me. But that’s just an opinion.
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28 Comments, Comment or Ping
Clayton
It’s a nicely written piece. The reality is that anyone who can’t pitch or hit or field doesn’t belong in the Hall, maybe some sub-hall or something. It gets too political from there.
p0litical. Barack’s gonna fix a lot of that. Change that will kick the bad element’s ass!
Feb 28th, 2008
gt
Everybody knows Whitey Herzog resented the attention Charlie Lau got for Brett’s success. Something similar may have been going on with Ewing Kauffman and Cedric Tallis. My dad knew those two guys a little bit, played some golf and cards with them, and when Tallis got fired I was incredulous. My dad mentioned something like he thought Kauffman might have been a bit jealous of Tallis getting all the credit when Ewing was the owner and brought baseball back to KC. There was also some idea that Tallis was not good with money which was why Joe Burke was promoted to GM. Back in those days Kaufman was very bottom-line oriented so that could have been part of it. Anyway, that’s what I heard.
Feb 28th, 2008
Perry
Wonderful post, as always.
I do think you might be underselling Larry MacPhail a bit. In addition to night baseball and plane travel, he built the Reds’ 1939-40 pennant winners and then went to Brooklyn and won one more before leaving for the war. I believe he hired Durocher there. Plus he almost kidnapped Kaiser Wilhelm, which has to count for something.
Feb 28th, 2008
D.B. Cooper
There’s a reason Howsam wasn’t in the Reds’ HOF until ‘04. Basically, they forgot they had it, and didn’t induct anyone between ‘88 and ‘98 (spanning the Schott years, not coincidentially).
Howsam served his second tour in the Reds front office from ‘83-84, so it’s not surprising that he wasn’t inducted before ‘88. The guys inducted after they started back up, but before Howsam, were either other BRM-ers or some dead-ball greats.
Howsam was delayed, but it wasn’t personal. The Reds HOF probably the best “team hall” in sports. Greg Rhodes and the staff have done some great stuff there, as Joe probably knows from his research.
Editor’s note: I do indeed know this … Greg is terrific and has been very helpful and the Hall of Fame is extremely well done. I was not suggesting that Howsam had been in any way snubbed by the Reds Hall, only suggesting that GMs, even the best, just tend to get forgotten.
Feb 28th, 2008
Devin McCullen
Ed Barrow did some other stuff, but he’s basically in the Hall of Fame for being the Yankees GM in the 1920s and 30s.
You can find out about the backstory to Bing Devine’s getting fired in Bill Veeck’s The Hustler’s Handbook, which is worth reading in general, although a couple of chapters haven’t aged well. (Granted, it’s Veeck’s version of the story, but I don’t know any particular reason to doubt it.)
The Prospectus guys ranked the Mets as a worse collapse, although that’s because they also played their way out of the wild card. They have that as the second-most improbable playoff miss, behind the 1995 Angels, who blew huge leads over both the Mariners and Yankees, although they peaked in August.
Feb 28th, 2008
Bowzer
It’s one thing for Pete Rose to be banned from the HOF in Cooperstown, but to not have him in the Reds HOF is a joke. Gordy Coleman and Johnny Temple are in and Pete is not? When is this guy going to get a break? Pete Rose IS Cincinnati Reds baseball.
And yes, he also belongs in Cooperstown. Bud Selig is a moron.
Feb 28th, 2008
Patrick
Every time I see or hear a Steve Bartman reference I want to bash my head against the wall. Not because I’m a Cubs fan (Win Twins!), but because Bartman didn’t give up 7 runs in the 8th inning, losing a 3-0 lead. Bartman didn’t completely choke and lose any sense of poise. Bartman didn’t give up a bases clearing double to Mike freaking Mordecai. The Cubs did those things. Bartman was one of a handful of fans who reached for a foul ball that ANYONE would have tried to catch. I hate the hate of Bartman and I feel bad for the guy. Not saying you hate Bartman, Joe, or even that you bashed him. I just can’t help but rant every time I hear/see his name.
Feb 28th, 2008
Josh in DC
I remember the night after that game, Steve Lyons (so help me, this is more painful than the time I quoted Phil Gramm) shows the clip, freezes it just before Steve Bartman interferes with it, and starts circling all the other fans who had their hands out trying to catch that ball. Bartman was just unlucky enough that it was actually hit to him. This, sad to say, is what most fans would do in that situation. It bugs me that he’s a villain, and I have trouble with Cubs fans because of it. It makes as much sense as blaming a goat.
Feb 28th, 2008
Andy
Billy Beane does seem to be the rock star of G.M.’s. When I heard that he signed Emil Brown, I got that “oh crap” feeling. BILLY BEANE wants Emil Brown. We screwed up. Shouldn’t have let him go. Then he signs Mike Sweeney! I guess one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Beane just seems to be one of those guys that thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, and it seems like more than half the time he IS.
Feb 28th, 2008
Rich
John Schuerholz and/or Pat Gillick for the HOF anyone? They both have long and proven records
with more than one team. Each to my memory has 2 World Championships. Schuerholz, with KC and the Braves, and Gillick with the Blue Jays. A very good post, by the way.
Feb 28th, 2008
D.B. Cooper
Rose can’t go into the Reds HOF as long as he’s on MLB’s ineligible list. The Reds, despite how they’ve played, are part of Major League Baseball.
Back to our favorite conversation - stupid HOF argument about who’s “feared.” Check out this whopper, about Dale Murphy:
“I don’t think there’s any question,” he said. “His stats show he led the entire decade of the ’80s in runs scored like guys like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ken Griffey Jr. On that stat alone he dominated the ’80s, the most feared hitter.”
I have no idea if that stat is even accurate for Murphy, let alone the other guys (and it’s obviously pretty meaningless, and totally irrelevant to “fear.).
Dale Murphy’s son is the one who came up with it, so you can sortof forgive him. He’s apparently at the NFL combine, of all places. Well, you need to check it out - the whole thing strikes me as a mostly sad, but a little comical.
http://tinyurl.com/2gkow9
Feb 28th, 2008
Mike S
I’m curious, Joe, if you think any current GMs are headed for the HOF. The only one I could support is Schuerholz, who built championship teams in two cities.
I agree with the earlier poster — the Mets collapses was worse because they had the parachute of the wild card. To play yourself out of both playoffs spots is something amazing.
Feb 28th, 2008
44magnum
In Erardi & Rhodes’s most wonderful, “Big Red Dynasty” so much of the credit for the Foster and Morgan trades is given to Ray Shore. Another sign of a great GM is to surround himself with as much talent as possible.
Feb 28th, 2008
Paul White
As long as we’re on the subject of overlooked GM’s, let’s throw a bone to Paul Owens.
The guy became director of the Phillies’ farm system in 1965 and promptly started stocking it with the likes of Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski and Bob Boone and Larry Bowa. When he was promoted to GM in 1972, he immediately traded for Steve Carlton, and then systematically upgraded the talent on that team for a decade, including Jim Lonborg, Dick Ruthven, Dave Cash, Lonnie Smith, Tug McGraw, Dick Allen, Garry Maddox, Manny Trillo, Bake McBride, Julio Franco, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Juan Samuel, Darren Daulton, Sparky Lyle, Gary Matthews, John Denny, and Von Hayes.
He turned around a franchise that had been in the post-season twice in their entire history and led them to five division titles, two pennants, and their only World Championship. Their winning percentage when he first became GM was .378, and then steadily rose to .438, then .494, then .531, then .623 and a division title in 1976, and never again dropped below .519 while he was GM.
Even though they were playing in a brand new stadium in a huge market, the Phillies were just 6th out of 12 teams in the NL in attendence when Owens took over. They drew just 1.3 million his first year. Within five years, that figure had doubled, and the Phillies were #2 or #3 in attendence for basically the rest of his tenure.
In short, Paul Owens could fairly be said to have saved baseball in Philadelphia, and now he’s mostly forgotten.
Feb 28th, 2008
Mikey
Here’s a link to the highly entertaining BP article referenced above on the worst collapses ever:
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6764
Feb 28th, 2008
Doug French
Here’s a link to a similar story written a few years ago…
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/bing-and-bob-starring-in-the-road-to-october/
Feb 28th, 2008
Jon
One more comment on the Bartman game.
I think the only reason he continues to be the scapegoat is because he started as the scapegoat, he was basically the turning point. Though it was nobody on 1 out and a 2-2 count on Pierre after that incident. Then Prior walks Pierre, then the Cubs collapse.
Next play is a routine to Alex Gonzalez by Luis Castillo and Gonzalez flubs the ball that is the real goat story. While a double play with 03 Castillo/Pierre is really hard we should have at least gotten one and that probably shifts the momentum. It gets all out of hand and the rest is history.
Goddamn Alex Gonzalez.
Feb 28th, 2008
Old Man Duggan
If you see my dad at the Flamingo, say hey for me.
Feb 29th, 2008
Tom Babb
Thanks for the Julia Othmer link Joe. The CD is on the way to my CD player. Feel free to sneak in any other recomendations!
Feb 29th, 2008
Sabertooth
More on the Bartman game: photos taken parallel to the wall show that Bartman made contact with the ball out over the field of play. Pierre should have been out on fan interference. The ump, whose name I’ve unjustly forgotten, totally blew the call.
No, I’m not a Cubs fan.
Feb 29th, 2008
Mauichuck
OK here’s a long forgotten GM who deserves a day in the sun: Hank Peters.
Hank started his career with the St. Louis Browns, move to KC to work for Charlie Finley - that alone makes him worthy of high regard - later following the reconstituted Browns to Baltimore, where he helped build a winner outta the ashes of the St. Louis club. After winning a WS in ‘83 Peters was tapped to help save the moribund Indians were he drafted Albert Belle, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez. Unfortunately he didn’t stick around for the Tribe’s success in the ’90s but rest assured, without him the Indians would now be playing in Las Vegas.
Feb 29th, 2008
Mikey
You can call a visiting player out on fan interference?
That seems like a bad rule. Doesn’t that seem to ENCOURAGE fan interference?
Feb 29th, 2008
Jeff P
Actually Joe, I replayed the entire 1964 season in Strat-O a few years back and the Phillies won the NL by nine full games. St. Louis was a distant third, despite playing with Brock the whole time. Nothing in Strat-O-Matic is ever a given.
Feb 29th, 2008
ASTA DOG
Not sure if he’s HOF material yet, but, ANDY Mc Phail did an awful nice job in Minnesota that led to their first World Series Championship after a 22 year wait to get back there. Pedigree kinda decent too, as he is part of the clan of the aforementioned Mc Phails.
Feb 29th, 2008
Tim Lacy
I’m with Commenter #10 on Schuerholz. Look at his record in 1980s and early 90s with Royals players, then of course the Braves afterwards. What more can one do to put their teams in a position to win championships?
But, to the reason for JoeP’s post, I agree that good GMs are radically underestimated in baseball history. There’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame if an owner can get in.
On the McPhails, this explains—to me at least—why Andy gets so many chances and respect. I didn’t realize his baseball family tree was so deep. - TL
Feb 29th, 2008
fan sl
Well, I do know this about that. Joe, you’re in my hall of fame for writing. I like Jason as well, and well might as well state, like Flan too. Sam’s coverage of the Royals is outstanding this year.
Mar 1st, 2008
skott daltonic
just wanted to say again how stoked i am you brought this blog back.
Mar 1st, 2008
steve
McPhail did NOT originate night baseball, Joe, you know that!
Mar 2nd, 2008
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