Expos player/coach Manuel became manager with White Sox and Mets

Jerry Manuel played with the Montreal Expos before managing the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets.

June 11, 2022

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Even when he was playing for the Expos in 1981 at age 28, Jerry Manuel was thinking of managing one day.

Even when he was languishing in the Detroit Tigers minor-league system from 1972 to 1979, he had managing in mind.

"I always wanted to manage when I was playing,'' he said in an interview. "I liked the strategy. I was interested in the chess part of the game.''

What Manuel did early on in his baseball career was to persevere in the face of adversity. He was patient. Manuel had gone 1-for-14 in the 1981 NL East-winning series for the Expos vs. the Phillies and was delegated to the bench for the NLCS against the Dodgers. Yet, there was no complaining from Manuel.

"It was about winning and that type of thing,'' Manuel said about being benched in favour of Rodney Scott at second.

And then in the next vein without any prodding, Manuel brought up the decision by manager Jim Fanning to bring in starting ace Steve Rogers to pitch the ninth inning and the score tied 1-1. Rogers got the first two batters out but left a 3-1 pitch out over the plate for Rick Monday to hit over the fence as the Dodgers advanced to the World Series.

"Rogers was a sinkerball pitcher. Monday hit it out of the park,'' Manuel said. "I think for me, Steve Rogers was our ace and as a young player, you understand some strategy to bring in your best guy but in years of being with (managers) Felipe Alou and Jim Leyland, that might have been a little different.''

Meaning a lefty like Bill Lee or Woodie Fryman should have been brought in to face the lefty-hitting Monday.

"What I came to learn, that was always a lesson,'' Manuel said. "If we had played on the Sunday instead of Monday, the result I think would have been different. When Monday came, it took the air out of us. We couldn't close the (roof) stadium (Sunday).''

That strategy, as Manuel talked about, was something on his mind later in his career when his playing days were over following the 1982 season. Manuel was picked up by the White Sox to work in their minor-league system and when he parted ways with Chicago following the 1985 season, he called up Fanning, looking for work.

Fanning, by that time, was back working in the Expos’ farm system in scouting as a jack of all trades.

"Do not call anyone else. We have something for you,'' Fanning told Manuel.

Sure enough, Manuel was hired by the Expos for the 1986 season and began a long run as a special organizational man for about 10 years. He was a roving man in many categories. Some years, he had a specific role.

"Jim thought outside the box when it came to player development and he seemed to have genuine concern for people,'' Manuel told me in August, 2021. "At the time he became manager, it was more of a favour for John McHale. He was a little bit out of his lane but I had nothing but great respect for him.

"I remember some players when he was ill (2015) making their way to see him when he made his home near Toronto.''

In 1986, Manuel was the hitting coach for the Expos minor-league powerhouse, the Indianapolis Indians, that captured the American Association triple-A championship with Joe Sparks at the helm. Manuel even got into 22 games that season at third base or second base.

Manuel spent the next three years as either the Expos' roving-infield instructor or minor-league field coordinator. Then in 1990, Expos GM Dave Dombrowski gave Manuel some serious responsibilities. Manuel was appointed the manager of the Jacksonville Jaxspos, their double-A affiliate. He led the team to an 84–60 record and was named the league's manager of the year.

Manuel started the 1991 season as skipper of the Indianapolis team. But when Dombrowski fired Rodgers midway through the 1991 season, Manuel was called up from the minors to coach third base under new skipper Tom Runnells. Manuel said he was "very excited to be back in the big leagues and being a coaching instructor at the highest level.’’

Manuel's role in the third-base box was something he did with the Expos through the 1996 season, much of that time learning managerial tactics from the master himself, Felipe Alou.

"Oh yeah, there was not a better mind in the game than he was,'' Manuel said about Alou. "He was quite an intelligent human being. Felipe was just ahead of everybody. He was thinking way ahead. With Felipe running things, you felt you were on autopilot. The 1994 team was the best team we ever had. It was a very, very good team. The players knew what their roles were.''

Manuel left the Expos for the Marlins following the 1996 season, rejoining Dombrowski and becoming third base coach under manager Jim Leyland. Following the 1997 season which saw Manuel help the Marlins win the World Series, he was hired as manager of the White Sox.

The highlight of his six-year tenure with the White Sox was winning 98 games in 2000. He later spent close to three seasons as Mets skipper.

But his managerial success stemmed, he said, from learning under Alou and Leyland.

"They were the two best guys, the two chief strategists. They let me ask questions,'' Manuel told me. "I was very fortunate. Felipe let me sit in on his press conferences. He kind of let me handle the instructions during spring training. That took me to another level. It obviously gives you the voice to talk to the team during spring training.''

As for his all-time favourite Expo while he was with the team, Manuel didn't have to look too far.

"I think the highlight for me being part of a very good team was the excitement in watching a player like Andre Dawson,'' Manuel said. "He was a really competitive player. Oh yeah, I have not seen a player like him. He was a different player, a different species, the fact that he was quiet.

"Every ball that was hit he thought he could catch until it hit the other side of the fence. He had a different kind of style, the way he hit, he held his hands a little different. He was just a good human being.''

This is an excerpt from Danny Gallagher’s latest Expos book called Bases Loaded. Gallagher is signing copies of four of his most recent books Sunday, June 12, beginning at 12:30 p.m., at Christie Pits in Toronto before/during the Intercounty Baseball League game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brantford Red Sox.