Sawyer, Wright best Phillies managers of pre-1960 bunch

Back in the day, back in the previous century, the Phillies had managers named Stuffy, Doc, Bucky and Dusty. And this was before Walt Disney animated "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

The luckless franchise had managers named Kaiser, Chief and Hans. For almost a decade, Harry Wright had the job. Go ahead, rattle off all your "looking for Mr. Wright" gags, I'll wait.

Any standouts in the bunch? Anyone to challenge one man's opinion that Charlie Manuel is the best manager this team has ever had? With a little help from the Phillies Encyclopedia, some conclusions.

Wright might have been the best from 1883 to 1959. He's in the Hall of Fame. His tombstone in Bala Cynwyd includes the phrase "The Father of Baseball." Played cricket in his native England. Played centerfield for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, America's first professional team.

When Al Reach got the Philadelphia franchise, he hired Wright. The team finished second once, third three times, and fourth five times, despite the presence of Hall of Famer Ed Delahanty in the lineup.

The Phillies fired him in 1894 and he died a year later, some say, of a broken heart.

It was Pat Moran, in his first year on the job, who managed the Phils to their first World Series, in 1915. He'd taken over a mediocre bunch and that first spring training he announced, "This is not a sixth-place club." He stressed fundamentals that spring and it paid off with a 90-win season. They lost to the Red Sox in the World Series, four games to one, and 3 years later the Phillies fired him.

The Reds hired him and they beat the Chicago White Sox in the tainted 1919 Series, uh-huh, the team known as the Black Sox, the team with Shoeless Joe Jackson.

After Moran was fired, it was 14 years before the Phillies finished above .500. The manager that year was Burt Shotton. Right, the guy fired by the Dodgers after they lost the 1950 pennant to the Phillies.

That 1930 team finished 52-102-2. The '32 team finished 78-76, so Shotton must have been doing something right. One spring he found out that some of his players were sneaking out of the hotel to visit dance halls. He slapped fresh green paint on the fire escapes. Next morning, in a show of hands, he caught five of his players green-handed.

Bucky Harris couldn't win in Philly, but he led the Yankees to a World Series soon after. They gave Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons a chance to manage and he bungled it. They tried Ben Chapman and he became most famous for his racist needling of Jackie Robinson, his first year with the Dodgers.

It wasn't until they hired Eddie Sawyer, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ithaca College, that they won again. Brought the Phillies home third in '49, setting the stage for the Whiz Kids in 1950 and a pennant clinching on the final day of the season.

His pitching staff was weary, so he started reliever Jim Konstanty in that first game of the World Series. The close loss triggered a four-game sweep by the Yankees.

Sawyer ranks first in my pre-1960 ratings, with Moran second, followed by Wright, Steve O'Neill and Red Dooin. The Phillies brought Sawyer back in 1958. Finished eighth that year, eighth the next year.

Managed the opening game of the 1960 season in Cincinnati and then quit. Asked why, he said, "I'm 49 and I want to live to be 50."

- Stan Hochman