Hello all!
On the blog today, we're going
to go ahead and beginning adding the All-Star manager to the base
All-Star cards between 1975 and 1979, beginning with the American
League's manager in the 1974 game, Dick Williams:
Now,
Williams was the manager based on his 1973 A.L. Pennant winning, and
title winning, year with the Oakland A's, their second straight World
Series win.
Funny thing is by the time the 1974 "Mid Summer
Classic" came around, Williams was now managing the California Angels
after a stormy end to his Oakland run, hence the Angels designation on
the card.
Williams had the A's at just the right time, coming
in for the 1971 season and winning 101 games for the burgeoning dynasty,
winning it all in 1972 and 1973.
Over the course of his 21-year managerial career, Williams managed
five first-place teams, reaching the playoffs with four of his teams:
Red Sox, A's, Expos and Padres.
He guided three of THOSE teams to the World Series, and finished with 1571 wins, four pennants and two World Series wins.
All of that eventually led to Williams being inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2008.
