http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, February 13, 2011
"Chuck's at the big ballpark in the sky. I guarantee you he's up there patting somebody on the back saying, 'Hey, you're doing OK, man. You're going to be all right.' " — Phil Garner
Four years before the Pirates won the 1979 World Series, Jack Nicholson won an Academy Award for managing a bunch of nuts in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."Chuck Tanner outdid him.
Tanner managed the '79 Pirates.
In remembering Tanner, who died Friday at age 82, one naturally conjures the "We Are Fam-a-lee" Pirates, a hugely talented and mercurial group that lost 18 of its first 30 games but fought from behind all year. Their clubhouse was packed with pitbulls (Bill Madlock, for one) free spirits (John Milner, among many), cut-ups (Kent Tekulve, Dave Parker, Phil Garner) and at least a couple of complete wackos.
We won't put pitcher Enrique Romo in that last category. We'll just let Garner tell us how Tanner proved his world-class people skills in dealing with his temperamental Mexican reliever.
"Every time we'd go to California, Romo would cry because his wife would take his green card away so he couldn't go into Mexico," Garner recalled Friday, shortly after hearing the news of Tanner's death, which came after a lengthy illness. "I'll never forget it. He'd be sobbing on the plane. Chuck would embrace him and hold him."
Tanner knew when to hold 'em, all right, but he knew when to scold 'em, too. The perpetual smile belied a fire within. Take the night Romo went cuckoo and pulled a knife in the clubhouse.
Garner couldn't remember why it happened, but he will never forget Tanner's response.
"Romo kind of snapped a little bit," Garner recalled. "Well, Tanner walked in and completely disregarded the knife. He grabbed Romo by the throat and lifted him off the floor — Chuck was left-handed and extremely strong — and he said, 'Don't you ever pull that knife in this room again!' Romo got rid of the knife as quick as he could."
Those Pirates remain the only World Series Champ with neither a 100-RBI man nor a 15-game winner, so the manager must have been doing something right. Tanner was firm in his often-unorthodox methods. He masterfully utilized his bullpen and was secure enough to let his players run the clubhouse.
He also didn't care a whit if his starting pitchers (hello, Bert Blyleven) chafed at all the early hooks. Before each season, Tanner met with his pitchers and delivered the following message, as recounted in a conversation years later:
Here's the deal, gentlemen: When I give you the ball, you pitch. When I come and ask you for it, you give it to me. I'll never show you up, and you're never going to show me up. If they hit four home runs off you, I'm not going to say anything, and if you have a no-hitter and I want the ball, you give it to me whether you like it or not.
Tekulve tried to show up Tanner once by meeting him halfway to the mound. Terrible idea.
"He grabbed a whole fistful of my shirt and pulled me back to the mound," Tekulve recalled. "After that, we had a long conversation about mound etiquette, or how to act polite after you get your (butt) kicked."
Still, it was the relentless optimism and cheery demeanor that best characterized Tanner. In that way, he is remembered similarly to late Penguins coach "Badger" Bob Johnson, who would break down a 7-2 loss by telling his team how pretty its two goals were.
When the Pirates fell behind Baltimore, 3-1, in the World Series, Tanner told his team, "We have 'em right where we want 'em."
Tanner's best player, Dave Parker, was driving near his Cincinnati home Friday when he heard the sad news.
"Chuck was like a father to me," Parker said. "If you couldn't like Chuck Tanner, you couldn't like anyone."
Read more: Starkey: Tanner perfect for ’79 Bucs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_722662.html#ixzz1DqSWeojl
No comments:
Post a Comment