Chuck Tanner: 1929-2011 | HardballTalk

R.I.P Chuck Tanner: 1929-2011

You probably know that he managed the world champion 1979 Pirates. Here are some interesting Tanner facts you may not remember:

He was the first non-playing manager to be traded for a player: Chuck Tanner for Manny Sanguillen, Nov 5, 1976.

He is the only manager to defeat Ted Turner. (Turner took over managing the Braves for one game, May 11, 1977)

As a player, he hit an Opening Day homer on the first major league pitch he ever faced. Tht happened on April 12, 1955. It was downhill from there. He finished the season at .247 with six homers.

He was a member of the 1957 Braves, the legendary Mathews-Aaron-Spahn team that broke through the Dodgers and the Yankees to bring the Milwaukee Braves their only World Series title. Unfortunately for Tanner, he never got that ring. In fact, the Braves' decision to get rid of him in June was a key move in building that team. They were struggling to find a left fielder to replace the aging Andy Pafko, and Tanner was obviously not filling the bill. Through the end of May they were 9-12 in games played by Tanner and 14-4 in other games. The Braves placed him on waivers. Shortly thereafter, the Braves gave the leftfield job to Wes Covington, who hit the daylights out of the ball in the second half of the season. From June 30th to the end of the year, here were the Braves' stats.

• Covington: .301; 19 HR; .926 OPS
  
• Mathews and Aaron combined: .298; average of 20 HR, .936 OPS
  

In other words, getting rid of Tanner allowed the Braves to bring up a kid who hit as well as two Hall of Famers in their youthful primes. (Aaron was the league's MVP; Mathews finished 8th in the balloting.)