I've noticed that esteemed Bauxite emeritus Craig Burley, will from time to time discuss field managers in terms of their bloodlines. Like horses. Which makes sense, even if they don't actually shoot managers. But as we seem to have been talking about General Managers a fair bit lately, I thought I'd carry on in a similar vein.
The first general managers, for the most part, were generally either the team owners (think Connie Mack) or the team managers (think John McGraw.) For the most part, both these wondrous species have vanished from the earth. George Steinbrenner notwithstanding, the last owner who doubled as a GM was Charlie Finley (although Bob Short attempted to run his team in the 1970s). Even Bill Veeck, who always described himself as an old-fashioned owner/operator, hired a GM for his last lap around the park. And off the top of my head, Jack McKeon in San Diego and Whitey Herzog in St. Louis are the last managers who served as their own GM. Billy Martin acted as his own GM for his first two years in Oakland.
The first great GMs who neither owned nor managed their teams were probably Ed Barrow and Branch Rickey, both of whom started out as field managers.
It would be really cool if I could post an Enormous Diagram with circles and arrows going in every which direction - our modern GMs have connections that go as far back as Branch Rickey and Joe Cronin, and many points in between. You'll just have to use your imaginations, and try not to get dizzy.
We can begin with the local guy, and after we'll try to move to someone vaguely connected with him. Billy Beane, say. That in turn will lead us to Ken Williams (Why? Well, Ricciardi and Beane both started under Sandy Alderson; Williams got started under Ron Schueler, who in turn got started under Sandy Alderson.) And so on and so forth...
J. P. Ricciardi, Toronto (2001) - As everyone knows, Ricciardi worked for Billy Beane in Oakland. That's true enough, but it misses most of the story. When Ricciardi started out in the Oakland organization, back in 1986, Beane was still playing in the majors. Ricciardi is really a Sandy Alderson protege (so is Beane, of course). Alderson brought Ricciardi into the front office in 1996 (Riccardi had been National Cross-checker), and Beane made him Director of Player Personnel when he took over the following year.
Billy Beane, Oakland (1997) - Alderson hired Beane in Oakland; it's the only team he's worked for in the front office. So let's trace his predecessor. Alderson actually came to Oakland as a lawyer - he was a member of Roy Eisenhardt's law firm, and when Eisenhardt's family bought the team in 1981, he brought Alderson with him. Alderson started out as general counsel, and eventually became the GM (where he hired another lawyer, Tony LaRussa, to manage the team on the field.)
Ken Williams, Chicago (2000) - Williams has spent his entire post-playing career with the White Sox, where he started out as a scout in 1992. Jerry Reinsdorf took a liking to him, and he moved to head of player development under GM Ron Schueler before replacing him in 2000. Schueler had been a special assistant to Sandy Alderson in Oakland before joining the White Sox as GM in 1991.
Andy MacPhail, Baltimore (2007) - The third MacPhail to be a major league GM previously held similar posts with the Twins (1985-1994) and the Cubs (2000-2001). He started out in the Houston organization, and spent three years working under Al Rosen before he took the Minnesota job. Rosen at that time had quite little front office experience, having spent most of his post-playing days out of baseball. He had worked with Cedric Tallis in New York, however. Tallis had been the original GM of the Kansas City Royals. Tallis' previous major league job had been with another expansion team, working for Fred Haney during the first eight years of the Los Angeles Angels. Tallis had been a minor league GM before that, and Haney had been a field manager, so that's about as far back as we can track this line.
Andy MacPhail himself, of course, has some very serious GM bloodlines; he is a third generation general manager. He is the son of Lee MacPhail, who ran the Orioles (1958-1965) and the Yankees (1966-1973), and the grandson of Larry MacPhail, who ran the Reds, Dodgers, and Yankees in the 1930s and 1940s. Both his father and grandfather are in the Hall of Fame.
Bill Smith, Minnesota (2007) - Smith has just succeeded his
long-time mentor Terry Ryan, who held the job for the previous fourteen
years. Ryan was previously an assistant to Baltimore's Andy MacPhail
back when MacPhail was running the Twins.
Walt Jocketty, Cincinnati (2008) - Jocketty was actually
hired by Charlie Finley in 1980, when Finley was still acting as his own GM. Jocketty stayed in Oakland under Billy
Martin and Sandy Alderson until getting the St. Louis GM post in 1994.
John Mozeliak,
St. Louis (2007) - Mozeliak has spent most of his career with Walt
Jocketty in St.Louis, but he actually started out with Colorado under
Bob Gebhard. Gebhard had worked for Andy MacPhail in Minnesota, and
for John McHale and Jim Fanning in Montreal.
Brian Cashman, New York (1998) - Cashman has spent his entire baseball career with the Yankees, where he started out as an intern. He worked under previous GMs Bob Watson and Gene Michael. Cashman became assistant GM in 1993, during Gene Michael's tenure as the Yankees GM.
Michael had moved directly from the playing field into the Yankee front office back in 1976, and would serve in almost every capacity possible: coach, field manager, general manager, head of major league scouting.
Watson spent two years as the Yankees GM between Michael and Cashman. Watson had been in the Houston front office before coming to New York; he had worked under GMs Bill Wood before assuming the role himself. Wood had been in Houston for a decade before he became the GM, working for Al Rosen (whom we met already - see Andy MacPhail) and Dick Wagner. Wagner had spent many years in Cincinnati before coming to Houston, and had worked under GM Bob Howsam for a decade before succeeding to the post himself. Howsam was a Branch Rickey protege, who had replaced Bing Devine in St Louis before coming to Cincinnati.
But the man who gave Watson his start in the Houston front office was Tal Smith, who started out under Paul Richards with the old Colt 45s and also worked with Spec Richardson, who was a Richards protege. Richards began as a field manager who took the GM's job as well when he went to Baltimore in 1954. He gave up the GMs post (to Lee MacPhail) after a few years, but would eventually resign as Baltimore's manager to become Houston's first GM.
Dayton Moore, Kansas City (2006) - Moore spent his entire career working for John Schuerholz in Atlanta before taking the Royals job, and the Schuerholz strain eventually leads us all the way back to Ed Barrow himself..
Schuerholz is from Baltimore, and he started out in the Orioles
organization under Harry Dalton. Dalton had started out in the Orioles
organization when Lee MacPhail, father of Andy, was the GM. Before replacing Paul Richards as the Orioles GM, MacPhail had run the Yankees farm system under George Weiss (who had previously run the Yankees farm system under Ed Barrow.) MacPhail was the heir apparent to Weiss in New York, as Weiss had eventually succeeded Barrow, but he presumably got tired of waiting for Weiss to move on. Anyway, Schuerholz then joined the expansion
Royals under Cedric Tallis (see Andy MacPhail); he also worked for Joe
Burke before taking the Kansas City GM job himself. Burke had been with
the expansion Senators/Rangers, working for Ed Doherty, George Selkirk,
and owner Bob Short before coming to Kansas City.
Andrew Friedman, Tampa Bay (2005) - Friedman had spent two years
working for the man he would replace, Chuck LaMar, when he took over in
Tampa Bay. LaMar had started out in the 1980s as a scout with
Cincinnati during the Dick Wagner-Bob Howsam years. Marge Schott, of
course, thought scouts were something of an extravagance. LaMar spent
two years in Pittsburgh with Larry Doughty (who had also come from
Cincinnati) before moving to Atlanta to serve as Director of Player
Development for John Schuerholz.
Mark Shapiro, Cleveland (2001) - Shapiro has spent his entire career in Cleveland; he arrived the same year (1991) that John Hart was hired to replace Hank Peters. Shapiro worked under Hart for a decade before succeeding him in the post.
Hank Peters, however, was the man who had actually got Shapiro the Cleveland job and he had also brought Hart aboard, first as a scout and then as director of baseball operations. Peters had had a long career as a major league executive - he had previously been the Orioles GM from 1975 through 1987. Peters Before that, Peters had worked for Gabe Paul and Alvin Dark in Cleveland, and for Pat Friday and Frank "Trader" Lane in Kansas City.
Dan O'Dowd, Colorado (1999) - O'Dowd started out in Baltimore
under Hank Peters, and went with him to Cleveland. He stayed on to work
with John Hart for many years before taking the Colorado job.
Jon Daniels, Texas (2005) - Daniels spent one year with the Rockies before being hired by John Hart in 2002 - he was promoted to assistant GM two years later, and succeeded Hart a year after that.
Josh Byrnes, Arizona (2005) - Byrnes started out in Cleveland
with John Hart before going to Colorado to work for Dan O'Dowd. He then
spent three years as Theo Epstein's assistant before getting the
Arizona job.
Neil Huntington, Pittsburgh (2007) -
Huntington got started with Montreal under Jim Beattie, before going to
Cleveland where he worked for both John Hart and Mark Shapiro before
landing the Pirates job.
Dave Dombrowski, Detroit (2002) - Dave Dombrowski started out with the White Sox during the Roland Hemond years.. Hemond had started out under Fred Haney in Milwaukee, before coming to Chicago, where the GM was a former football player named Stu Holcomb. Hemond was the baseball mind behind the White Sox operation, and spent 16 years as the GM before being sacked and replaced by broadcaster Ken Harrelson in 1986. Harrelson's disastrous year in charge would end up costing the White Sox dear - besides getting rid of Dombrowski, he also fired manager Tony LaRussa and made a number of extremely ill-advised trades. Dombrowski soon took over the GMs job in Montreal.
Tony Reagins, LA Angels (2007) - Reagins has spent his entire career working under Bill Stoneman in the Angels organization before succeeding him in the GM job. Stoneman worked for many, many years in the Expos front office under John McHale, Murray Cook, Dave Dombrowki, Dan Duquette, Kevin Malone, and Jim Beattie (Woody Woodward) before coming to Anaheim (he's actually spent one year as the Expos GM himself.) That's a great many bloodlines to trace, but here goes!
McHale started out in Detroit in the 1950s - he was promoted to the GM's job by owner Walter Briggs, who had been running the team himself. McHale also ran the Braves before coming to Montreal.
Dan Duquette started out in Milwaukee with Harry Dalton (whom we met along with Dayton Moore and John Schuerholz, above) before coming to Montreal.
Murray Cook spent many years in Pittsburgh working first for Joe Brown and later for Harding Peterson before he came to Montreal. Brown was a Branch Rickey pupil, and succeeded the Mahatma in Pittsburgh in 1955; Peterson was Brown's long-time assistant and eventual successor.
Dombrowski we've encountered already.
Kevin Malone started out in Minnesota under Andy MacPhail, and came to Montreal in 1991 during Duquette's tenure as GM.
Jim Beattie had worked for Woody Woodward in Seattle before coming to Montreal - Woodward had worked for Dick Wagner and Bob Howsam in Cincinnati (as well as a brief stint in New York while Clyde King was in charge. King had spent most of his career as a minor league manager before joining the Yankees front office. He had worked for a couple of years in Atlanta for Eddie Robinson, a Paul Richards man.
Jim Hendry, Chicago (2002) - Hendry started out in Florida with
Dave Dombrowski, but joined the Cubs under Ed Lynch in 1995. Hendry stayed with
the Cubs during Andy MacPhail's tenure, following Lynch, before succeeding him in the
GM's post. Lynch had
worked under Joe McIlvaine in both San Diego and New York. McIlvaine
had got his start under Frank Cashen with the Mets. Cashen had worked under, and then replaced, Harry Dalton in Baltimore.
Frank Wren, Atlanta (2007) - Wren started out with Dave
Dombrowski in Montreal and Florida, before getting his first crack at
the GM's chair with Baltimore. That didn't work out, and he spent the
last eight years in Atlanta with John Schuerholz before stepping up to
the big chair this past off-season.
Omar Minaya, New York Mets (2004) - Minaya spent many years
scouting in the Texas organization; it was Steve Phillips who hired him
for the Mets front office in 1995. Phillips had worked for Gerry
Hunsicker, Al Harazin, and Joe McIlvaine, all of whom got started under
Frank Cashen (whom we met in connection with Harry Dalton, and Dayton Moore and John Schuerholz).
Bill Bavasi, Seattle (2004) - Bavasi is the son of long-time major league GM Buzzie Bavasi, and he spent much of his career working for his father in Los Angeles. He also spent two years with the Dodgers when Dan Evans was the GM.
Evans had worked in Chicago for Roland Hemond (see above), Ken Harrelson (left no marks!), Larry Himes, and Ron Schueler (an Alderson man, as we've seen.) Larry Himes had also worked for Buzzie Bavasi with the Angels.
Buzzie Bavasi spent most of his career with the Dodgers - he was originally hired by Lee MacPhail way back in 1939, and Branch Rickey brought him back to the Dodgers after the war. When Rickey lost his power struggle with O'Malley for control of the Dodgers, Buzzie replaced him as GM and held the post until 1968, when he took over the expansion Padres. He turned San Diego over to his other son, Peter, and replaced Harry Dalton in 1978 in Anaheim. He brought Bill into the Angels organization in 1981.
Bill Bavasi remained in Anaheim under Buzzie's successor and long-time protege Mike Port; he endured through the brief Dan O'Brien-Whitey Herzog period in the early 1990s before finally getting the Angels job himself.
Kevin Towers, San Diego (1995) - Towers came to San Diego in 1989 under GM Jack McKeon, but he seems to have been a Randy Smith protege. He joined the expansion Rockies along with Smith under Bob Gebhardt for their first season in 1993, but both he and Smith returned to San Diego a year later. Smith served as GM for the next two years, and Towers replaced Smith at the end of 1995. Smith moved on to Detroit, and Towers eventually hired him as a special assistant when the Tigers cut him loose in 2002.
Theo Epstein, Boston (2002) - The youngest GM in major league
history when he was hired, Epstein started out under Kevin Towers in
the San Diego organization.
Larry Beinfest, Florida (2002) - Beinfest started out with Woody Woodward in Seattle, and also worked with Jim Beattie in Montreal. He seems to be in the process of unloading his duties onto assistant Michael Hill.
Pat Gillick, Philadelphia (2006) - Gillick spent most of his pre-GM years in the Houston organization under Paul Richards, his protege Spec Richardson, and Tal Smith (see Brian Cashman, above). Gillick also spent a couple of years with the Yankees when Gabe Paul was running the show.
Brian Sabean, San Francisco (1996) - Sabean started out with the Yankees when Woody Woodward held the GM's seat, and also worked under Lou Piniella, Gene Michael, and most importantly, Bob Quinn.
Quinn got started in Milwaukee with Trader Frank Lane, but had spent many years in Cleveland, working for Phil Seghi before going to New York. Seghi had worked for Gabe Paul and Bill DeWitt. Sabean went to San Francisco with Quinn in 1993, and replaced him three years later.
Jim Bowden, Washington (2004) - Bowden starts out with Pittsburgh with Syd Thrift (who had worked under Joe Brown and Cedric Tallis; he then went to Cincinnati where he assisted Bob Quinn for a few years before getting the GM job himself in 1992.
Ned Colletti, Los Angeles (2005) - Colletti spent a year with Larry Himes in Chicago, but has spent the rest of his career with Bob Quinn and Brian Sabean in San Francisco.
Doug Melvin, Milwaukee (2002) - Melvin started out with the Yankees when Steinbrenner was changing his GM every year - Melvin worked for Bill Bergesch, Murray Cook, and Clyde King in just three years. He then had a long run in Baltimore working for Roland Hemond (although he may have actaully been hired by Hank Peters) before taking the Texas GM job in 1994.
Ed Wade, Houston (2007) - Wade worked as a PR director for the Pirates, and then with Tal Smith's consulting firm (arbitration cases our speciality!) before joining the Phillies front office as an assistant to Lee Thomas. Thomas had worked in the Cardinals system for Whitey Herzog, Joe McDonald, and Dal Maxvil before coming to Philadelphia. Maxvil essentially started out as Herzog's extension in the front office, although he ended up outlasting Whitey.
Herzog, of course, had mostly worked as a field manager; he had however been the Mets Director of Player Development from 1968 through 1972. He'd worked for Johnny Murphy and Bob Scheffing in New York, and that takes us back. Murphy played for Joe McCarthy, and worked in front offices run by Joe Cronin, Dick O'Connell, and Mike Higgins.
Joe McDonald also worked for Murphy while he was in New York; McDonald was actually hired when George Weiss was starting the Mets operation, and he also spent a year working for Bing Devine. Murphy was succeeded by Bob Scheffing; McDonald stayed in New York, and eventually replaced Scheffing, while Herzog went down to the field in Texas.
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