Tanner was a great man, manager
There will never be another manager quite like Chuck Tanner.
There will never be another person like him either.
Tanner, who managed the Pirates to their last World Series championship with his famous “We Are Family” squad of 1979, died Friday at his home in New Castle after a long illness.
Tanner was the eternal optimist, one of the most positive people I’ve ever known, and while Willie Stargell, Kent Tekulve, Dave Parker and many others had a lot to do with the Bucs’ comeback from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Orioles in Game 7 during that series 32 years ago, make no mistake about it, Tanner was the one who propelled them to victories in those final three games. He made sure his players remained confident, convinced them they could still come back and then made all the proper moves to give them that chance, including his controversial move to start veteran left-hander Jim Rooker instead of future Hall-of-Famer Bert Blyleven in the crucial fifth game.
Rooker didn’t get the win – ironically, Blyleven did in relief – but he kept the Pirates in the game by allowing only one run on a double play grounder in five solid innings and Pittsburgh eventually won 7-1 to force a Game 6.
Tanner helped his team win Game 5 despite dealing with the emotional tragedy of losing his mother the morning of the game. He decided to manage the team that night because he said that’s what his mother would’ve wanted him to do.
The Pirates, of course, went on to win Games 6 and 7.
They haven’t been to a World Series since.
Tanner was a unique manager who many times relied on his intuition instead of simply playing the percentages.
He was a unique person in that he was one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. I talked to Tanner on a few occasions and what you loved about him was how he treated everyone the same. The first time I met him he asked me where I was from. I told him Uniontown, down in Fayette County.
I’ve known many sports figures over the years who, if they know you’re not writing for the Associated Press or one of the two main Pittsburgh newspapers, wouldn’t really care to talk to you.
Tanner? He said that, yes, he knew where Uniontown was and how are things down there and, sure, he’d be glad to talk to me, smiling the whole time.
You would be hard-pressed to find a moment when Tanner wasn’t smiling. Always in a good mood, he livened up the pressroom every time he walked in.
No wonder he was popular, so much so that one of his biggest fans, Laurel Highlands graduate Bob Kelly, used to keep track of the manager with his Chuck Tanner report.
Tanner knew of the newsletter, in fact received it himself, and was genuinely flattered by it. Tanner was known as a nice guy as a manager, too, but don’t be fooled. He’d never trash a player in public, but he’d make sure to get his point across in private if he saw something he didn’t like.
Tanner, with his savvy and against-the-grain moves, was the type of manager who is practically extinct nowadays.
He famously once sent up left-hand hitting John Milner as a pinch-hit for right-hand hitting catcher Steve Nicosia late in a close game against the Phillies. Nicosia was 4 for 4 at the time and lefty reliever Tug McGraw was on the mound, so the move made no sense at all when you looked at the so-called percentages.
The result? Milner hit a game-wining grand slam and was carried off the field by his teammates.
He didn’t always just go with his feeling, though. Tanner was an intelligent manager. He was one of the first managers to mix and match pitchers with his bullpen. He converted Goose Gossage from a starter to a reliever to ignite a Hall-of-Fame career. When Gossage left via free agency, he made a tall string bean right-hand throwing submarine pitcher his closer, a move many at the time thought would fail.
Kent Tekulve ended up working out just fine, though.
Tanner was very sly, too.
I remember a game he managed that Willie Stargell did not start in. Though I can’t recall the opponent or the players involved, I do know a situation came up late in the game where the Pirates had a right-handed hitter coming to the plate with a lefty on the mound. The opposing manager had a pitcher warming up in the bullpen and was pondering making a righty-against-righty move, because that’s would the percentages would dictate.
At about that time, Tanner walked over and said something to the left-hand hitting Stargell, who then strolled over to the bat rack, picked out his favorite piece of lumber and started loosening up.
The opposing manager saw this and decided it best to leave in his lefty to face the right-hand hitting Pirate rather than bring in a righty only to have Tanner counter with Stargell, who was one of the most feared pinch hitters in all of baseball.
Well, the hitter knocked in a key run that led to a Pirates victory.
Tanner could only smile afterwards.
Stargell was injured and not near 100 percent, and his manager had no intention of playing him that day. But, like a master poker player, Tanner used the big slugger as a bluff to keep the matchup he wanted at the plate, and it paid off with a win.
You don’t see creativity like that in today’s by-the-book managers.
And you won’t see another Chuck Tanner ever again + the manager, or the person.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rvburchianti@hotmail.com.