If you google what the most important position is on a baseball diamond, nearly every opinion piece/quote/Reddit thread agree- it’s the catcher. There’s a reason that catchers are known as the “managers of the infield”- they have to know EVERYTHING that is going on in game. Catchers call pitches for every pitcher, they help set the defensive alignments and have to worry about baserunners and stealing. They also have to squat for hundreds of pitches with equipment on, and when they finally get off the field they have to get ready to hit 4-5 times a game. So one would think that these “managers” on the field would be great real managers when they retire. And the truth is- they are (but not by a large margin).

TWSN took a look at every World Series winning manager dating back to 1903. In that time there have been 114 World Series played, and only once was the manager of the winning team not a former professional ball player- in 1918 Ed Barrow managed the Boston Red Sox to a 4 games to 2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. It was Barrow who famously let a young Babe Ruth play everyday, as previous manager Jack Barry believed Ruth should only play on days he was pitching. Barrow sought guidance from future Hall of Famer Harry Hooper, who suggested that Ruth become an outfielder despite being the top lefty pitcher in the Majors at the time. Ruth, like many other members of the Red Sox, was famously traded to the New York Yankees soon after due to debt accrued by Boston owner Harry Frazee. Barrow left for the Yankees as well and became their operations manager in charge of building the roster (acting as one of the league’s first true “general managers”). He won 14 AL Pennants and 10 World Series as a member of the Yankees organization.

But Barrow is the sole outlier- every other manager who has won a World Series since 1903 has had professional baseball experience. TWSN had one goal- what position is the best manager in baseball? The data says that catchers are the most successful- 30 championships have been won by 19 former catchers. Connie Mack leads the group with 5 for the Philadelphia Athletics (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 & 1930), Joe Torre has 4 for the Yanks (1996, 1998, 1999 & 2000) and Bruce Bochy adds 3 for the San Francisco Giants (2010, 2012 & 2014).

But catchers aren’t overwhelmingly the best. There have been 11 second basemen who have won 23 championships, though the last was Davey Johnson with the Miracle Mets in 1986. And you might be thinking- just 11 managers with 23 championships, that seems off? Well Joe McCarthy, who managed the Yankees at the end of “Murder’s Row” and the beginning of the Joe DiMaggio eras, is tied with Casey Stengel (a right fielder in case you’re wondering), for most World Series won by a manager with 7. And yes, those two men account for 14 of the 27 titles won by the Yankees- an MLB record. The second basemen group also sport Walter Alston, who has 4 WS titles with the Dodgers including the famous 1955 win over the cross town rival Yankees. Miller Huggins and Sparky Anderson each add 3 titles as well for the group.

One issue we had when collecting the data was players with multiple positions. We did our best to assign players to the position they played significantly the most in their careers, but it was tough for some. Case in point- 2018 World Series Champion Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox. Cora played professionally from 1998 to 2011 and played in 1208 games- of those he played shortstop for 616 and second base for 530 (he also added 48 at 3B and 13 at 1B, along with some stints as a DH and 2 games in the OF). For our data, we considered Cora simply an INFIELDER (IF), rather than assign him a specific position.

We also ran into this issue with Tony La Russa, who won 3 World Series with both the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. La Russa had a very short career, though it did extend over 6 seasons in the 1960s and 70s. In total, he played in just 132 games, playing in the field 83 times (he retired 2 years before the designated hitter was introduced). Of those 83 games, he only started 40. He came up to the big leagues as a shortstop for the Kansas City Athletics, but played more games as a second basemen. Numbers wise, he technically played nearly 76% of his games in the field as a second basemen, but if you look at complete games (which he played in the field for all 9 innings and/or extra innings), that number is 24 of 34 games, or ~70%. The sample size was just too small, and truthfully La Russa has significantly less playing experience than most.

The final problem group were outfielders- this group includes 4 championships from 3 men- Mayo Smith (Detroit ’68), Whitey Herzog (St. Louis ’82) and Cito Gaston (Toronto ’92 and ’93). Smith played just one season in 1945 for the Philadelphia Athletics, where he played 73 total games and was in the field for 65 of them. His breakdown in the outfield was- 32 in left, 28 in center, 7 in right. Herzog played 8 seasons for 4 teams from 1956 to 1963. Of the 634 games he played in, he played in the field 487 times. He has an interesting breakdown in the outfield because he never played any position for more than 50% of the time (he also played 37 games at 1B too)- 212 as a RF, 134 as a CF, and 114 in right. Gaston has the longest career of the 3, appearing in over 1000 games over an 11-year career. He played in the outfield 773 times, with a defensive breakdown of 410 in center, 283 in right and 91 in left.

Besides Barrow, the infielders and the outfielders, we have a pretty simple sample. This research only brought up a host of more things to be curious about. What if we expanded it to pennant winning managers instead of just WS champions? What about playoff performance vs. regular season performance? Do certain managers from certain positions coach differently than others? The list goes on and on, but the data points to a few simple conclusions. Yes, managers who were formerly catchers have won the most World Series, both overall and recently. Does that mean they are the smartest? Not necessarily, but an argument could be made that they are if you equate championships won to intelligence. Perhaps we will see a new wave of managerial types in this century too- DH’s, former scouts or general managers, heck maybe even “outsiders” like Barrow was. One thing IS certain- baseball is becoming more technology/analytics driven than ever before, and studies like this could be what influence hirings in front offices across the sport in the future.

Data:

Year	Team	Manager	Position
1903	Boston Americans	Jimmy Collins	3B
1905	New York Giants	John McGraw	3B
1906	Chicago White Sox	Fielder Jones	CF
1907	Chicago Cubs	Frank Chance	1B
1908	Chicago Cubs	Frank Chance	1B
1909	Pittsburgh Pirates	Fred Clarke	LF
1910	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	C
1911	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	C
1912	Boston Red Sox	Jake Stahl	1B
1913	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	C
1914	Boston Braves	George Stallings	C
1915	Boston Red Sox	Bill Carrigan	C
1916	Boston Red Sox	Bill Carrigan	C
1917	Chicago White Sox	Pants Rowland	C
1918	Boston Red Sox	Ed Barrow	NOT APPLICABLE
1919	Cincinnati Reds	Pat Moran	C
1920	Cleveland Indians	Tris Speaker	CF
1921	New York Giants	John McGraw	3B
1922	New York Giants	John McGraw	3B
1923	New York Yankees	Miller Huggins	2B
1924	Washington Senators	Bucky Harris	2B
1925	Pittsburgh Pirates	Bill McKechnie	3B
1926	St. Louis Cardinals	Rogers Horsnby	2B
1927	New York Yankees	Miller Huggins	2B
1928	New York Yankees	Miller Huggins	2B
1929	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	C
1930	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	C
1931	St. Louis Cardinals	Gabby Street	C
1932	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1933	New York Giants	Bill Terry	1B
1934	St. Louis Cardinals	Frank Frisch	2B
1935	Detroit Tigers	Mickey Cochrane	C
1936	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1937	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1938	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1939	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1940	Cincinnati Reds	Bill McKechnie	3B
1941	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1942	St. Louis Cardinals	Billy Southworth	RF
1943	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	2B
1944	St. Louis Cardinals	Billy Southworth	RF
1945	Detroit Tigers	Steve O’Neill	C
1946	St. Louis Cardinals	Eddie Dyer	P
1947	New York Yankees	Bucky Harris	2B
1948	Cleveland Indians	Lou Boudreau	SS
1949	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1950	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1951	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1952	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1953	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1954	New York Giants	Leo Durocher	SS
1955	Brooklyn Dodgers	Walter Alston	1B
1956	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1957	Milwaukee Braves	Fred Haney	3B
1958	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	RF
1959	Los Angeles Dodgers	Walter Alston	1B
1960	Pittsburgh Pirates	Danny Murtaugh	2B
1961	New York Yankees	Ralph Houk	C
1962	New York Yankees	Ralph Houk	C
1963	Los Angeles Dodgers	Walter Alston	1B
1964	St. Louis Cardinals	Johnny Keane	SS
1965	Los Angeles Dodgers	Walter Alston	1B
1966	Baltimore Orioles	Hank Bauer	RF
1967	St. Louis Cardinals	Red Schoendienst	2B
1968	Detroit Tigers	Mayo Smith	OF
1969	New York Mets	Gil Hodges	1B
1970	Baltimore Orioles	Earl Weaver	2B
1971	Pittsburgh Pirates	Danny Murtaugh	2B
1972	Oakland Athletics	Dick Williams	LF/3B
1973	Oakland Athletics	Dick Williams	LF/3B
1974	Oakland Athletics	Alvin Dark	SS
1975	Cincinnati Reds	Sparky Anderson	2B
1976	Cincinnati Reds	Sparky Anderson	2B
1977	New York Yankees	Billy Martin	2B
1978	New York Yankees	Bob Lemon	P
1979	Pittsburgh Pirates	Chuck Tanner	LF
1980	Philadelphia Phillies	Dallas Green	P
1981	Los Angeles Dodgers	Tom Lasorda	P
1982	St. Louis Cardinals	Whitey Herzog	OF
1983	Baltimore Orioles	Joe Altobelli	1B
1984	Detroit Tigers	Sparky Anderson	2B
1985	Kansas City Royals	Dick Howser	SS
1986	New York Mets	Davey Johnson	2B
1987	Minnesota Twins	Tom Kelly	1B
1988	Los Angeles Dodgers	Tom Lasorda	P
1989	Oakland Athletics	Tony La Russa	IF
1990	Cincinnati Reds	Lou Piniella	LF
1991	Minnesota Twins	Tom Kelly	1B
1992	Toronto Blue Jays	Cito Gaston	OF
1993	Toronto Blue Jays	Cito Gaston	OF
1995	Atlanta Braves	Bobby Cox	3B
1996	New York Yankees	Joe Torre	C
1997	Florida Marlins	Jim Leyland	C
1998	New York Yankees	Joe Torre	C
1999	New York Yankees	Joe Torre	C
2000	New York Yankees	Joe Torre	C
2001	Arizona Diamondbacks	Bob Brenly	C
2002	Anaheim Angels	Mike Scioscia	C
2003	Florida Marlins	Jack McKeon	C
2004	Boston Red Sox	Terry Francona	1B
2005	Chicago White Sox	Ozzie Guillén	SS
2006	St. Louis Cardinals	Tony La Russa	IF
2007	Boston Red Sox	Terry Francona	1B
2008	Philadelphia Phillies	Charlie Manuel	LF
2009	New York Yankees	Joe Girardi	C
2010	San Francsico Giants	Bruce Bochy	C
2011	St. Louis Cardinals	Tony La Russa	IF
2012	San Francsico Giants	Bruce Bochy	C
2013	Boston Red Sox	John Farrell	P
2014	San Francsico Giants	Bruce Bochy	C
2015	Kansas City Royals	Ned Yost	C
2016	Chicago Cubs	Joe Maddon	C
2017	Houston Astros	A.J. Hinch	C
2018	Boston Red Sox	Alex Cora	IF