SF Giant's Managers from the Past

[Bear]

In this thread I am going to feature a little information about each SF Giant manager from the past. Most of this information is known by Giant fans, but it is my focus to look at the man behind the uniform.

[McCovey]

Hummm Baby!!! :woot:

[Bear]

William Joseph Rigney (January 29, 1918 - February 20, 2001) was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. A native of Alameda, California, he batted and threw right-handed.

A 26-season major league veteran, Rigney played for the New York Giants from 1946 through 1953. His most productive season came in 1947, when he collected career-highs in home runs (17), RBI (59), runs (84), hits (142), doubles (24) and games played (130). An All-Star in 1948, he was a .259 career hitter with 41 home runs and 212 RBI in 654 games.

Following his playing career, Rigney served as the Giants manager from 1956-60, leading the club in its first season after moving from New York to San Francisco in 1958. He then became the expansion Los Angeles Angels first manager in 1961, moved with them to Anaheim, and remained until the 1969 season, winning the AL Manager of the Year Award in 1962. He later led the Minnesota Twins to the 1970 AL West championship before being replaced in the 1972 midseason.

After serving as a scout for the Padres and Angels (1973-74), Rigney had a second managerial stint with the Giants in 1976.

In an 18-season managerial career, Rigney posted a 1239-1321 record (.484) in 2561 games. After that, he served as a front-office consultant and a radio and TV broadcaster for the Oakland Athletics in the 1980s.
Rigney died in Walnut Creek, California at age of 83.

This guy was the perfect manager for the Giants and the times.

[Bear]

Stephanie Salter
Sunday, February 25, 2001


Bill Rigney, Ever Young


A FEW days before Bill Rigney died, his daughter Lynn and I stood on either side of his hospital bed, holding his hands. Although Rig was in a deep sleep with a ventilator buried in his trachea, his chest rose and fell hard. Wild wisps of white hair stuck out behind his big, pointy ears. Sweat bore testimony to just how tough a workout he was getting.

Lynn looked at him as she so often has, with profound love and awe, and wiped away tears.

"I know he's 83," she said. "But I've never thought of Dad as old."
No one could. Not Bill Rigney's kids, his closest friends and relatives, his former players or teammates, his legion of fans or all the sportswriters who chronicled his long baseball career and hung on his every word. Even the doctors and nurses at John Muir Hospital, where Rig spent so many of the last 18 months, said he had the fight and stamina of a man one-third his age.

See, Rig was simply incapable of being old. Somebody left out that piece of equipment during his design phase.

In many men, especially professional athletes, the eternal-youth thing can wear poorly and turn a god into a grotesque. Rig was not such a man. He lacked oldness, not maturity; he lacked a world-weary cynicism, not sparkle.

More to the point, a potent vitality (and virility) filled the air around him and remained after he left, like some subtle but sexy aftershave.
This ever-young, ever-ready vitality is a characteristic custom-made for baseball. Or at least for the baseball that millions of us once fell in love with, the baseball that Rig grew up playing in the sandlots of Oakland, the old Pacific Coast League and for the New York Giants of 1946-53. It was the baseball he then managed, scouted, broadcast and advised others upon for the next half-century -- right up until last month when a battery of infections forced him into a ridiculous trade: his voice for the privilege of breathing.
What irony. As every obituary and tribute has noted, Rig was probably the greatest witness-lover baseball has ever known. Nirvana was to sit with him behind home plate (preferably a day game) or in a banquette in some crowded restaurant (preferably the Pink Pony in Scottsdale, Ariz.), and listen to him talk about the game he cherished as much as life itself.
As those of us who have tried to repeat his stories in print will attest, their magic began and ended with Rig's ability to animate them. Minus his California-Irish-jig of a voice, his sideways head turns, eye rolls, shoulder shrugs, finger points and "Oh, swell," they're just words.

Rig and I met at spring training in Arizona in 1973. He was between managerial gigs (Minnesota and San Francisco) and I'd just begun to cover baseball. Right away I realized that the modern taboo against writers fraternizing with subjects did not apply to this guy. Like scores of scribes before me, I fell under the spell of Rig.

After I left sports, our friendship grew richer, and our talks encompassed everything from the Catholic Church to the many reasons he fell in love with his wife Paula. As was his wont with friends, he showered me with warmth and respect, as if I were Miss America and a Nobel Prize winner. Unlike so many baseball men, he never patronized or talked down to me because I was a girl and hadn't played the game; one's presence and attention were all he required for inclusion in his club.

Cancer, chemo and their attendant creepy pals made 1999 Rig's last spring training. One day, we were walking to our seats in Phoenix Municipal Stadium where the A's (his team) play. A 68-year-old fan came up and started fawning. Then he asked Rig, "How old are you now?"
Rig gave the sideways head turn and said, "That's kind of personal . . . I'm 81."

"Good God!" the man said. "You musta seen a lot of baseball."
Behind his sunglasses, Rig fixed his eyes on the fan. "Yeah," he said, "but I'll tell you, I've never seen it all."

The scent of sexy aftershave almost knocked that 68-year-old senior citizen to his knees.

Rigney was known for a great sense of humor!

[Bear]

David Bush, Dwight Chapin, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
It Musta Been Rigged
Bill Rigney, dead at 83, lived a charmed life in baseball

BILL RIGNEY, the Giants' first manager in San Francisco and later an executive with the A's in their 1980s championship years, died yesterday in John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek. He was 83.

Rigney, who also had the reputation of being one of baseball's great raconteurs, died of cardiopulmonary complications after a long illness.
"He was a guy who fit into every human category," longtime Giants and A's radio broadcaster Lon Simmons said. "He was a friend of presidents, baseball people, movie stars, everybody."

With the Giants he managed Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. "He was my first manager, and my favorite," McCovey said. "He was so friendly, he wouldn't let you dislike him. He was that type of guy."

Cepeda recalled his first major-league training camp with the Giants in 1958, when Rigney was one of the few who saw Cepeda's immediate promise. "I was in spring training with a Triple-A contract," Cepeda said. "I wasn't supposed to make the team, but Bill said he had confidence in me. He put up with me in '58. I know I made a lot of mistakes, but he would always come to me after the game and talk to me about what I did."

Rigney was born in Alameda and attended Oakland High School. After starring on the East Bay sandlots, he signed with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in 1938. An infielder, he played for the New York Giants from 1946 to 1953, compiling a lifetime batting average of .259.
Rigney drew attention with the way he caught pop fouls -- basket style, years before Willie Mays made it popular -- and for the effervescent way he talked. With the Oaks, he had been called "Specs," because he wore glasses. The Giants called him "The Cricket," because he chirped.

When his playing days ended, in 1954, Rigney was dispatched by Giants owner Horace Stoneham to manage the team's Triple-A farm team in Minneapolis. Two years later, he succeeded Leo Durocher with the big-league club, finishing sixth that season and again in 1957.

When the team moved West in 1958, Rigney led the team to consecutive third- place finishes. But in June 1960 with the team in second place just four games behind Pittsburgh, he was fired and replaced by scout Tom Sheehan -- a decision many believe was the worst Stoneham ever made.
Rigney was back at work the next spring, managing the Angels for nine years and the Twins for three. It was with the Twins that he won his only title as a manager, the AL West in 1970, but the Angels remained his favorites.

In 1962, the expansion team's second year of existence, with a colorful collection of characters including Bo Belinsky, Dean Chance, Leon Wagner and Art Fowler, the Angels gave the Yankees of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris all they wanted. The Angels actually led the American League as late as Sept. 12, before fading to a third-place finish. Rigney was a runaway choice as American League Manager of the Year.

"We had a ball that year," Marv Grissom, a pitcher on the team in '62, said by telephone from his home in Red Bluff (Tehama County). "One thing Rig could do was get along with every player. He was able to develop a personal relationship with all of them."

Many of Rigney's favorite anecdotes dealt with that team, including the night a hotel fire in Boston forced all the guests to evacuate in the wee hours of the morning. Clad in his pajamas, Rigney was watching the fire from the street when he noticed several of his players also on the sidewalk, fully dressed.

Before he could inquire, Fowler deadpanned, "I'll bet you'd love to know if we were just coming in or just going out."

In 1969, Rigney joined Simmons and the late Russ Hodges in the Giants' radio broadcast booth for one year before succeeding Billy Martin as manager of the Twins.

When his longtime friend Bob Lurie bought the Giants in 1976, he installed Rigney, who had been out of the dugout for four years, as manager. He lasted just one season, finishing 74-88, and later admitted it had been a mistake to come back.

He scouted for the Angels before signing on with the A's in 1982, a job he held until his death. In 1994 he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Rigney also did some broadcast work with the A's.
From 1982 until his death Rigney -- who was known simply as "Rig" to those close to baseball -- worked with the A's as a special assistant to the president.

"He was great with people at all levels of the organization, from the front office to those of us in uniform," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who was managing the A's at the time, said by telephone from Florida. "I knew I could rely on his knowledge and his honesty. You need to hear the truth, but you don't always get it. You did with him. He was a very smart man."
After the A's won an American League pennant in 1988, then-A's executive Sandy Alderson said, "When you talk about people who have contributed to our success, you have to single out Bill Rigney. His contributions have been enormous. He has been involved in every one of our player acquisitions since I came here in 1982. I've watched 600 or 700 games with Bill, and it's been an education."

Rigney was famous as a story-teller. "Spring training was his stage," Simmons said. "You could listen to him for hours."

Alderson recalled nights at the Pink Pony Steakhouse in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Rig would know everybody in the place, and have a story about them," he said. "And he had the great ability to draw people in. He had great knowledge but he never talked down to people." Alderson recalls watching games with Rigney and the late club owner Walter Haas from the club box at the Coliseum. "It was like having our own personal color man," Alderson said. "And we would have some wonderful conversations, not just about baseball."

Even though he had several decades in the game and had played against some of the greatest names of all time, few players regularly sought him out to talk baseball.

"They don't want to know," he said. "They really don't want to know. All they say is, 'Hey, man, that was 40 years ago. Things are different now.' Oh, really? How different? Do they run to third base instead of first? Come on."
Rigney is survived by his brother Don of Lafayette, sons Bill Jr. of Midland, Texas, and Tom of Berkeley, daughter Lynn Schott of Kettle Falls, Wash., and six grandchildren. His wife, Paula, died in 1998.

A memorial Mass was held Friday, 10:30 a.m. at St. Isidore's Church, 445 La Gonda Way, Danville. Plans for a public memorial service on Monday are pending.

By the years
Jan. 29, 1918
Bill Rigney is born.

1946
Rigney begins his first season in the major leagues with the New York Giants.

1947
Rigney, who turned a weakness on inside pitches into a strength by altering his stance, hits 17 home runs.

Aug. 12, 1950
The Giants' Eddie Stanky is banished by umpire Lon Warneke for refusing to stop waving his arms in an attempt to distract Phillies batter Andy Seminick. Giants manager Leo Durocher had agreed to await a league ruling on the tactic, but after Seminick knocks Hank Thompson unconscious in a collision at 3B, Durocher turns Stanky loose. Later, when Seminick puts a linebacker block on Bill Rigney, Stanky's replacement, both dugouts empty for a brawl. The Phils go on to win 5-4, and the Giants protest Stanky's ouster.

Aug. 14, 1950
NL president Ford Frick reproaches Stanky and bans his tactics, disallowing the Giants' protest. He also fines Seminick and Rigney for the incident.

1954
Owner Horace Stoneham sends Rigney to Minneapolis to manage the Giants' top farm team.

Sept. 24, 1955
The Giants fail to renew Durocher's contract. He resigns and is replaced by Rigney.

Oct. 16, 1957
Rigney signs a 2-year deal and becomes the first manager of the San Francisco Giants.

June 18, 1960
The Giants, a big favorite to win the pennant in a preseason poll of writers taken by the Sporting News, change managers, replacing Rigney with Tom Sheehan.
Horace Stoneham's team is 33-25 and trails only Pittsburgh.

1961-1969
Rigney becomes the expansion Los Angeles Angels' first manager, and remained with the team until he was fired in 1969.

Oct. 22, 1969
Rigney is the new manager of the Twins.
His only division title came as manager of Minnesota 1970, but he was swept by Baltimore in the League Championship Series.

July 6, 1972
The Twins fire Rigney, promoting 33-year-old coach Frank Quilici to take his place.

1976
New Giants owner Bob Lurie fires manager Wes Westrum, coaxing Rigney out of retirement to replace him. Rigney lasts one season, managing the team to a 74- 88 record.
.
1978
He is hired as a scout by the Angels. .

1982-2001
A's executive Roy Eisenhardt hires him as special assistant to the club president, a title he held until his death yesterday at 83.


And this was Bill Rigney, a truly great baseball man, and a Great Giant!

[SF Kid]

I think Alvin Dark was my favorite. I'm not really sure about it though.

[Bear]

From Wikipedia

Thomas Clancy Sheehan (March 31, 1894 — October 29, 1982) was an American pitcher, scout and manager in Major League Baseball.

Born in Grand Ridge, Illinois, Sheehan, a righthander, had a six-year pitching career from 1915-1916, 1921 and 1924-1926, playing for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees of the American League and the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. He pitched for two of the worst teams in major league history — the 1915-16 Athletics. Manager and part-owner Connie Mack totally dismantled his 1914 AL-champion club after it was swept by the "Miracle" Boston Braves in the World Series. After Mack replaced his stars with inexperienced players, the A's of 1915-16 won a total of 79 games, while losing 226 — a winning percentage of only .259. At 21, Sheehan won four games and lost nine in 1915, but the following season he dropped 16 of 17 decisions (.059), although he compiled a decent earned run average of 3.69.

Overall, Sheehan appeared in 146 major league games, winning 17 and losing 39 (.304) with a 4.00 ERA.

Sheehan spent many years as a minor league manager and as a scout for the New York/San Francisco Giants. In June 1960, at age 66, he succeeded the fired Bill Rigney as pilot of the Giants. The move was a shocker, and it backfired. Rigney's Giants had won 33 of 58 games and were in second place in the National League; but under Sheehan, San Francisco won 46, lost 50 (.479) and fell to a second-division, fifth place finish. Sheehan resumed his scouting duties at season's end.

He died in Chillicothe, Ohio at the age of 88.
This guy IMO was the worse SF Giants manager of all time. I really do not think he knew much about the game, but he knew how to drink with the owner. He was one of two Giants managers I have seen napping durning a game. In short he was a joke.

[McCovey]

Did Alvin Dark take over after Sheehan?

[Bear]

Did Alvin Dark take over after Sheehan?

Yes he did in 1961.

[McCovey]

Is it true that Dark said some "racist" comments about his own players?

[Bear]

Is it true that Dark said some "racist" comments about his own players?

I believe that that is sad but true.:(:nono: