Leadership In Baseball, Part 3

Bob Gibson: "I don't know if I'd call any of my managers a father figure, but Johnny Keane - who, in fact, had studied to be a priest - certainly nurtured me as a pitcher. In my professional debut, I had a terrible time getting the ball over the plate and was letting up to throw strikes. Of course, that led to getting pounded. I remember Keane coming out to the mound and taking the ball and saying, 'That's pretty good for the first time. We'll get back to you later.'

My first three years in St. Louis, the manager was Solly Hemus, and I'm pretty sure I'd have been traded if the Cardinals hadn't fired him halfway through the 1961 season. Keane took over, and it was a different world. That was the year when Sandy Koufax broke through and became an all-star. Keane pointed out to me that Koufax had started out just like I had - wild and depending too much on the fastball. My manager was building up my belief in myself. And the next year, I was an all-star.

Johnny Keane telling me that, and putting his faith in me, meant more than a hundred successful hit-and-runs."

Leadership In Baseball, Part 2

Reggie Jackson: "A manager's value is in the intangibles. Does he create an environment in which everybody can do his job at peak capacity? What kind of comfort level does he bring to the club? How does he maintain morale and confidence? How does he communicate? Does he understand his opponents? Does he understand his personnel? Does he motivate his personnel? Does he teach? Does he treat everybody fairly? Does he command respect? Does he surround himself with good coaches? How does he handle the front office, ownership, and the media? It all plays a part."

Bob Gibson: "The position is about managing people. A manager can't come barging in with a bunch of rules and expect them to work for every team and every player and every situation. Everybody can't be treated the same way. One set of rules just doesn't do the trick. This isn't the Army. It would be an ideal situation if everything was that black and white, but it's not."

Leadership In Baseball, Part 1

Reggie Jackson: "A manager sets the tone. The best example of that, from what I've seen, was Joe Torre with the Ynakess.

He had a calmness about himself that permeated that team. We had a lot of high-profile personnel there... Joe's even temperament created a low-key atmosphere in that clubhouse - a controlled atmosphere, where no one got out of kilter, no one was too big for his britches. It was about the team.

Torre's personality rubbed off on that ball club, in a good way. A team reflects that calmness in qualities like confidence and poise."

Bob Gibson: "A bad manager can affect a team more than a good manager. Good managers know when they have a good ball club, and they let good ballplayers play. The don't overmanage. A bad manager wants to be in control at all times. It's impossible to maintain a really good team when one man controls every thought."

- from the book "Sixty Feet, Six Inches."