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AP
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Even with his teams’ storied collapses, Gene Mauch left an indelible imprint on baseball.
Mauch, who won 1,901 games during 26 years as a major league manager, died Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer, the Los Angeles Angels said. He was 79.
Known as “the little general” for his intricate game strategies and no-nonsense dealings with players, Mauch was regarded as one of baseball’s top innovators.
He still gained far more notoriety for his teams’ historic failures.
“If it’s true you learn from adversity, I must be the smartest (guy) in the world,” Mauch once said.
He died at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., the desert resort area where he had lived since retiring.
A big league skipper with California, Philadelphia, Montreal and Minnesota, Mauch was the National League manager of the year three times. He is sixth in baseball history with 3,938 games managed, and 11th on the career victories list.
“When you played against him he looked like a robot, but when you got to know him you learned how passionate he was about the game,” New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said Monday. “He was a very classy, very generous, very caring man.”
Mauch is forever linked to dramatic collapses. He was manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 when they led the NL by 6½ games with 12 games remaining, but lost 10 in a row — and the pennant — to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“He carries the burden of the ’64 Phillies, but if it wasn’t for Gene’s managing, we would have never been in position to win the thing,” Phillies vice president of public relations Larry Shenk said.
Mauch managed the California Angels in 1986 when they were within one out of advancing to their first World Series before they blew a three-run lead to Boston in Game 5 of the ALCS. The Red Sox won that game and the next two to win the series.
He also managed the 1982 Angels, who won the first two games in the best-of-five ALCS against Milwaukee before losing the final three.
“I don’t think history will be as fair to him as it should be,” said Tim Mead, the Angels’ vice president of communications and a member of the organization since 1979. “He was brilliant. Gene Mauch could put together a game just by looking at the box score.”
Bobby Wine, who played 12 seasons under Mauch in Philadelphia, said Mauch was a master at thinking ahead.
“I don’t know of a better strategist. He knew the rules better than umpires,” Wine said. “One time, Jim Bunning was having trouble with a baseball. The umpires wouldn’t give him a new one.
“Gene came out to the mound, dropped the ball on the ground and spiked it with his shoes. Bunning got a new baseball.”
Mauch was one of the first managers to use double switches.
“I was playing shortstop and Gene came out to take out the pitcher,” Wine recalled. “He told me I was out of the game, too. I said, ’Why me? I didn’t give up the home run.’
“It was the first time I was involved in a double switch.”
Dallas Green said: “He was so far ahead of everyone and knew the rules better than anyone and used that to his advantage. He respected the game very much and taught all of us how to play good, sound, fundamental baseball.”
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.