McLaren's No Maury Wills, Which Is Probably a Good Thing

Bill Bavasi made a point of saying during Mike Hargrove's farewell press conference that Hargrove never "pointed to the back of his baseball card." Meaning that Hargrove--who had more than 1500 career major league hits--never pulled the "I played major league baseball, what the fuck you have you ever done" card.

This won't be an issue with new manager John McLaren either--McLaren's the first manager in Mariner history who never played in the bigs.

It's often said that great players make the worst managers, and that's certainly true of the Mariners--their worst manager was Maury Wills, who had a 26-56 record as M's manager, was famously suspended for ordering Kingdome groundskeepers to enlarge the batter's box, and was arrested for cocaine possession not long after the M's fired him.

McLaren joins six other current major league managers who never threw or hit a major league pitch: Manny Acta, Fredi Gonzalez, Jim Leyland, Grady Little, Joe Maddon, and Orioles interim manager Dave Trembley.

Of the twenty winningest managers of all time, only Joe McCarthy (#11) and Earl Weaver (#20) didn't play major league ball.

Obviously we'll all forgive McLaren's lack of baseball playing talent if he's as good a manager as Earl Weaver.

You can buy that 1981 Mariners schedule at Gasoline Alley Antiques