A Rough Few Days for Managers

The early part of June in 1898 was not kind for a handful of managers across the National League, who soon found themselves out of work.

June 5 ^th was an off-day for all twelve clubs in the National League. It was also the start of a tough stretch for a handful of managers who would soon be unemployed. The story starts the day before in Louisville, where the Colonels were playing host to the 12-25 Washington Senators. It had been a rough season so far for Tom Brown’s Senators, who were expected to improve on their 6 ^th place finish the year before. Instead, Washington was hanging near the cellar of the National League standings.

However, the Senators came in to the game winners in five of their last six contests. Still, team officials were unimpressed with the club’s performance to date and Brown’s job was in jeopardy. The last straw came that afternoon in Louisville. The Senators were sporting a 2-1 lead before an errant throw by pitcher Bill Dinneen in the bottom of the eighth allowed Louisville to scratch three runs across. The Senators lost 4-2 and the next morning, Brown was out of work, replaced by first baseman Jack Doyle on an interim basis.

That same day, Brooklyn Dodger owner Charles Ebbets was on the verge of deciding whether to fire current team manager Bill Barnie. Like the Washington club, improvements had been expected for a Brooklyn team that finished 7 ^th in the standings one year ago. However, the team was not producing as expected and it was been reported that Barnie had lost control of the team. The Dodgers recent play had been described as a comedy. But fault was been placed not only at the feet of Barnie but at team captain Mike Griffin as well. While Barnie decided the starting line-up, once the game started, Griffin became the man in charge for Brooklyn.

Rewind back to June 2 ^nd and Brooklyn was sitting with a 13-20 record when Barnie ripped into his team. He called out pitchers Brickyard Kennedy and Ralph Miller plus veteran third baseman Billy Shindle in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He also lit into the entire team in the clubhouse after the day’s loss to the Chicago Orphans for lacklustre play. Barnie’s tactics seemed to light a fire as the Dodgers came out and won their next two games against the Orphans.

Back to the 5 ^th of June and only a few hours after Washington made a managerial change; Ebbets fired Barnie and replaced him with Griffin. In a statement, Ebbets stated that a “clash of authority” between Barnie and Griffin had put the team at odds and felt that neither man could co-exist with the other any longer, thus a change had to be made. While Griffin’s official job title was that of acting manager, Ebbets said if the team started to win, the job would be his permanently. Ebbets also said in his statement that he would become more involved with his team on a day-to-day basis.

When Ebbets said that, he didn’t know how involved he was about to come. In Griffin’s debut as manager, the Dodgers lost 15-2 to Chicago and three games later, he resigned after an 11-2 thumping to Cleveland. Griffin said that he refused the full-time manager’s job offered to him because in his words, “as long as I am a fellow player of the men, I do not want to appear as a dictator.” Ebbets, not wanting to go outside of the organization to hire a manager midseason, decided to take the reins himself for the rest of the season.

The New York Giants were 22-21 and only eight games back of the pennant when their cross-town rivals made a switch at manager. Unlike Barnie, whose team was turning against him, “Scrappy” Bill Joyce was the exact opposite. In fact, the players on the Giants loved playing for Joyce, whom they thought to be firm but very fair and easy to communicate with. But President Andrew Freedman was not happy with his team hovering around .500 and on the night of June 10 ^th , he sat down at a hotel conference room with Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson.

Cap Anson was and still is a baseball legend. Recently fired as player-manager of Chicago, Anson found himself out of work for the first time in 27 years. Warm and cuddly are two words that would not describe Cap but results would. He was a .333 lifetime hitter and as a manager, he led Chicago to five National League pennants. Freedman had great respect for Anson as a baseball man and offered him a position managing his Giants. Anson accepted and took over the next day.

Anson was 46 and he said he would not take his position at first base, instead leaving that position to Joyce, who would remain as the team’s on-field captain. Full power, Freedman said, was given to Anson for any changes involving Giants’ personnel. In Cap’s first game in charge, the Giants were 6-2 winners over the Charlie Ebbets-led Brooklyn Dodgers. However more losses the wins accompanied Anson’s term with the Giants and the honeymoon between him and Freedman was short-lived.

On July 7 ^th , Freedman called both Anson and Joyce into his New York office, where he informed Anson that he was being released as manager of the Giants. In turn, Freedman reinstated Joyce as manager with full power. Freedman readily admitted a mistake in hiring Anson, which he called a ‘failure’. Over the next two months, the Giants played harder for Joyce and went 32-15 over that period of time. Despite struggling in the stretch run, New York finished above the .500 mark (77-73) under Joyce, for a respectable 7 ^th place finish in the standings.

Back in Brooklyn, Charlie Ebbets could not right the ship. The Dodgers instead limped to a 10 ^th place finish with a 54-91 record overall. Under the owner, the club was a disappointing 38-68. At the end of the season, Ebbets stepped down as manager then went out and negotiated the purchase of the financially struggling Baltimore Orioles, who finished 2 ^nd place the year before. Along with receiving many stronger players from Baltimore, Ebbets also brought ex-Oriole manager Ned Hanlon over to manage the newly-renamed Superbas. The result: an 1899 National League pennant.

Meanwhile, Washington couldn’t find a permanent manager in 1898. Jack Doyle, the appointed interim for the Senators, was purchased by the New York Giants on July 8 ^th for the sum of $2,000. Deacon McGuire took over afterwards but with one month left on the season’s schedule, the Senators’ management hired Arthur Irwin for the remainder of the season and 1899. Irwin had just finished managing the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Eastern League, where he spent his last two seasons. The four managers coached the Senators to an atrocious 51-101 record. The next season, Irwin managed the team to another 11 ^th place finish and the team was contracted from the National League.