The Record Speaks for Charlie Manuel

The debate about the value and difference-making ability of a baseball manager shall rage forever on barstools and in chat rooms. In a sport dominated by individual statistics, the role of the field general must be defined by his team’s number of wins. That may not be fair if the manager was handed mediocre talent to work with but that’s what he signs up for when he takes the job.
Charlie Fuqua Manuel Jr. has seen many things in his nearly 70 years on the planet. The Virginia native lost his father to suicide just before his high school graduation, which ended his dreams of accepting a college basketball scholarship.
One of 11 children and the oldest male, Manuel, a four-sport high school star signed a professional baseball contract for $30,000 with Minnesota in 1963. He made his Major League debut six years later and played three non-descript seasons with Minnesota before two mop-up years with the Dodgers.
Manuel made his name as a player with the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan. A rare American-born Japanese baseball MVP, he batted .303 with 189 home runs and 491 runs batted in from 1976 through ’81. He overcame being beaned and breaking his jaw in six places while playing in Japan.
As a six-year minor league manager for the Twins and Indians, Manuel won 610 games and was a three-time manager of the year. He won the Pacific Coast League and the International League in his last two seasons.
In 1988 he joined Cleveland as hitting coach for one season and returned to the role from 1994 through ’99. He managed the Tribe from 2000 until being fired on July 12, 2002. He joined the Phillies as a special assistant before becoming the team’s manager in 2004.
He would win 1,000 games in Philadelphia with a World Series Championship in 2008 and a return trip in 2009. His squads won five straight National League Eastern Division titles.
To listen to him speak you’d never realize his abilities and accomplishments in the game he loves. Manuel is nothing if not seasoned and tough. He survived a heart attack, quadruple bypass surgery, a blocked and infected colon, kidney cancer and being brutally beaned twice.
It’s tough for anyone to succeed in a leaership role in a major media market like Philadelphia, but when you speak like Goober from the Andy Griffith Show it’s all the more difficult to earn respect. Under the glare of press conference lighting, Manuel often struggled to express himself clearly and without embarrassing redundancy and stuttering.
To judge him fairly you must study the accounts of his interpersonal relationships with otherwise spoiled millionaires who often play the game with usually uncontrollable egos. Manuel is revered by the men who play because he understands personalities as well as he knows the game.
Virtually every player these days has a multi-year guaranteed contract and it takes a special understanding of these young men to cajole and convince them to reach their potential and to play for the good of the team. It’s far from easy.
It’s clear to see that Manuel thrived in private moments when the tape recorders and cameras were not present. He showed the players a caring, grand-fatherly type quality that made them respect him, even in the tough times.
It is easy to take shots at him from his country appearance and sound, but the great majority of baseball followers shall never really know the man the way people like future Hall of Famer Jim Thome did. One of the true stars and gentlemen in the sport, Thome considers Manuel a second father and that type of testimonial is good enough for me.
In these last few of his nearly nine-year run as Phillies’ manager, Manuel’s won-loss record was hurt by personnel decisions made above his rank. The huge dollars and risk of free agency and guessing game of young talent assessment can twist an organization in many directions. Losing key components and rolling the dice on risky acquisitions or aging veterans can come up empty.
When that occurs, the manager is left with the responsibility.
Philadelphia General Manager Ruben Amaro made the obvious and perhaps correct organizational decision in letting Manuel go, but Amaro shares the burden of where the team finds itself. His job is just as difficult as Manuel’s was and his responsibility for the results just as burdensome.
We’ll never know how the players would have responded had former GM Ed Wade gone with popular choice Jim Leyland instead of Manuel. Leyland has enjoyed success in Pittsburgh and now, Detroit, but once again, most of us will never know what goes on in the clubhouse and how his handling of a player like Jimmy Rollins may have differed from Manuel’s leadership.
From our distant vantage point on the other side of talk radio or a keyboard, we can and do debate who appears to know the game better and which guy is better with the famed “double switch.” One thing that is not debatable is the fact that leadership is about relationships with people. Effective leaders are respected and they don’t and shouldn’t seek to be best friends with their subordinates. They must walk a fine line of when to acknowledge achievement and when and how to address failure.
Manuel deserves credit for an obvious ability to relate to and lead young, distracted ballplayers who pocket millions of guaranteed dollars and whose motivation is not always team oriented. His achievements and toughness speak much louder and clearer than did his words behind a microphone.
Reach Rossi at joerossi61@comcast.net