Chuck Dressen

Charles Walter Dressen (September 20, 1894

Dressen's first opportunity to manage came in 1932 as the playing skipper of the Nashville Vols of the Southern Association. He interrupted that assignment late in 1933 to fill in as a third baseman for the Giants during the pennant drive when regular Johnny Vergez was forced out of the lineup because of appendicitis.^[2] Dressen started a dozen September games, batting .222.

Although he didn't play during the

Despite his poor won-lost record (214–282, .431) in Cincinnati, Dressen made a valuable ally in the Reds’ mercurial general manager, Larry MacPhail. In 1939, a year after MacPhail became president and general manager of the Dodgers, he named fiery shortstop Leo Durocher player-manager and Dressen as his third base coach. Under MacPhail and Durocher, the Dodgers became a hard-playing pennant contender, winning Brooklyn's third NL pennant of the modern era in 1941. But when MacPhail resigned in October 1942 to rejoin the armed forces and was succeeded by Branch Rickey, Dressen was fired from Durocher's staff — reportedly because he refused to eschew betting on horses. He was on the sidelines for the first three months of the 1943 season before being rehired by the Dodgers that July.

As the Second World War was ending, MacPhail returned to baseball as part owner, president and general manager of the New York Yankees. Following the 1946 campaign, he raided the Dodger coaching staff, signing Dressen and Red Corriden as aides under his new manager, Bucky Harris. The raids contributed to a public feud between MacPhail on one side and Durocher and Rickey on the other. Commissioner of Baseball Albert B. Chandler suspended Durocher for the entire 1947 season for "conduct detrimental to baseball", suspended Dressen for 30 days for signing a Yankee contract while still an employee of the Dodgers, and fined both clubs and some of their employees.^[7]

MacPhail left baseball after the Yankees' 1947 World Series victory over the Dodgers, and Harris was sacked after the Bombers' third-place 1948 finish. Dressen was not retained by Harris' successor, Casey Stengel, but instead he replaced Stengel as the manager of the Oakland Oaks of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He skippered the Oaks in 1949–1950 and his teams finished second and first, winning 104 and 118 games during the PCL's elongated regular-season schedule. Simultaneously, a power struggle for control of the Dodgers ended in Walter O'Malley forcing Rickey out of the Brooklyn front office. When O'Malley fired Rickey associate Burt Shotton in the autumn of 1950, he chose Dressen to manage the 1951 Dodgers.

Leader of Brooklyn's 'Boys of Summer'

Dressen's Dodgers, unlike his Reds of a decade and a half before, were a perennial contender in the National League, with a lineup that included five future members of the

Dressen returned to Oakland to manage the Oaks in 1954 while he sorted out his big-league future, then was hired to replace Bucky Harris at the helm of the Washington Senators, who had gone 66–88 to finish sixth in the eight-team American League in 1954.

Dressen inherited a

Milwaukee's roster still boasted Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn. But the star players around them, including regulars Del Crandall, Joe Adcock, Bill Bruton, Wes Covington and Johnny Logan, and ace starting pitcher Lew Burdette, began to tail off in production, and the Braves' farm system could not keep up. Dressen was not able to reverse the Braves' slow decline to the middle of the pack. They again finished second in 1960 (going 88–66), but a full seven games behind, and were 71–58 and in fourth place late in 1961 when Dressen was replaced on September 2 by Birdie Tebbetts.

In 1962, Dressen returned to the minor leagues—yet remained in the Braves' organization—when he was named the skipper of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Triple-A International League, who had a working agreement with Milwaukee.^[15] Under Dressen, the 1962 Leafs registered 91 victories, but fell in the playoffs to the eventual champion Atlanta Crackers.^[16]

Detroit Tigers

As the 1963 season began, Dressen was out of uniform, scouting for the Dodgers. But after the Detroit Tigers won only 24 of their first 60 games under Bob Scheffing, Dressen was hired on June 18 to take over the team.^[17] He rallied the Tigers to a 55–47 record for the remainder of 1963, a first division finish in 1964, and was mentoring many of the key players who won the 1968 World Series for Detroit, including Denny McLain, Willie Horton, Mickey Lolich, Dick McAuliffe, Bill Freehan and others.

However, by his third year with Detroit, Dressen's health began to fail. In 1965, a heart attack sidelined him during spring training^[18] and he didn't return as the Tigers' manager until May 31.^[19] He managed the first 26 games of the 1966 campaign before his hospitalization from a second cardiac event on May 16,^[20] leaving the Tigers in the care of acting managers Bob Swift, then, after Swift was sidelined in mid-July by serious illness himself, Frank Skaff.

Still on medical leave when August began, Dressen was reported to be recovering from his heart attack

Known for his self-confidence, Dressen often told his star-studded Dodgers, "Just hold them for a few innings, fellas. I'll think of something."[22] His career big league managerial record was 1,008–973–9 (.509), including a 298–166 (.642) mark in Brooklyn.^[23]

Managerial record

See also

• List of Major League Baseball managers by wins

References