Book Excerpt:
Clown College
The College of Coaches was the poster child for bad ideas from the mind of owner P.K. Wrigley. In the first 90 years of the franchise’s existence, dating back to the National Association in 1871, the franchise had never lost more than 94 games in a season. Two years into the College—and the 162-game schedule—the Cubs got an F, or the baseball equivalent of that grade: 100 losses.
Wrigley had announced the system to a skeptical press by saying, “The dictionary tells you a manager is the one who bosses and a coach is the one who works. We want workers.” They may have had workers, but the system never worked. First of all, few coaches with managerial options or aspirations would go anywhere near the Cubs. (Though Harry Craft did go from the 1961 College of Coaches to manager of the first-year Houston Colt .45s, which would finish ahead of the ’62 Cubs.) Second, Wrigley could replace head coaches even quicker than he did managers—and only seven years earlier he had fired popular and honest Phil Cavarretta while the team was still in spring training. Third, not all coaches got chances to be head coach; most lamentably Buck O’Neill, who was baseball’s first African American coach and could have been the first manager of color. (Frank Robinson broke that barrier in Cleveland 13 years later.) O’Neill, a championhip manager in the Negro Leagues, getting a chance to lead the Cubs? Now that would have been innovative.
The experiment continued, though Bob Kennedy ran the team on the field for the next two-plus seasons. The Cubs showed an improvement of 23 games and had a winning season in ’63. Kennedy was eventually replaced in June 1965 by Lou Klein, who had twice previously served as head coach. Leo Durocher was brought in the next year to clean up the mess. Starting from scratch, the Cubs again lost 103 games. They followed with a winning record each of the next six seasons. No Cubs team had put together that many consecutive seasons since Leo—and no other Cubs team has hit 100 losses.
Here’s the rundown by the numbers of College of Coaches in order of P.K.’s whim (with help from retrosheet.org).
Head Coach Year Record Uni#
Vedie Himsl 1961 5-6 #4
Harry Craft 1961 4-8 #53
Vedie Himsl 1961 5-12 #4
El Tappe 1961 2-0 #52
Harry Craft 1961 3-1 #53
Vedie Himsl 1961 0-3 #4
El Tappe 1961 35-43 #52
Lou Klein 1961 5-6 #60
El Tappe 1961 5-11 #53
*El Tappe 1962 4-16 #53
Lou Klein 1962 12-18 #60
Charlie Metro 1962 43-69 #63
Bob Kennedy 1963-65 182-198 #61
Lou Klein 1965 48-58 #60
*The only “Player-Head Coach” in history.
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